Moral ideal, guard the inner sweetness
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अंतरींचें गोड । राहें आवडीचें कोड ॥1॥
संघष्टणें येती अंगा । गुणदोष मनभंगा ॥ध्रु.॥
उचिताच्या कळा । नाहीं कळती सकळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अभावना । भावीं मूळ तें पतना॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What is sweet within the chitta, let it remain as the cherished delight of love. Contact with the outer world brings virtues and faults that disturb the mind. The subtle ways of propriety are not known to all. Says Tuka, disbelief within is the root of downfall, even amid outward devotion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is sweet within, let it stay as the cherished delight of love. Rubbing against the world brings virtues and faults that break the mind. The fitting ways of things are not understood by everyone. Tuka says: disbelief within is the root of the fall, even where there is outward devotion.
What it means
Tukaram is counseling care for the tender inner life of devotion. There is a sweetness within, the delight of love for God, and he says to keep it safe and let it stay. Friction with the outer world stirs up judgments of good and bad in others and can shatter that inner peace; what is truly fitting is a subtlety most people miss. So the real danger is not outward failure but a lack of faith inside. He warns that even a person who performs devotion outwardly will fall if disbelief sits at the root, because the sweetness he told us to guard cannot survive there.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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