Moral ideal, parents are the pilgrimage
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मायबापें केवळ काशी । तेणें न वजावें तीर्थासी॥1॥
पुंडलीकें काय केलें । परब्रह्म उभें ठेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
तैसा होई सावधान। हृदयीं धरीं नारायण ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मायबापें । अवघीं देवाचीं स्वरूपें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One's parents are themselves a living Kashi; there is no need to travel to any other pilgrimage. See what Pundalik did: by serving his parents, he made the Supreme Brahman stand still. Be alert like him and hold Narayana in your heart. Says Tuka, one's mother and father are the very forms of God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your mother and father are themselves a living Kashi. With them at home, you need not travel to any holy place. Look at what Pundalik did: by serving his parents he made the Supreme Brahman stand still and wait. Be alert like him; hold Narayana in your heart. Tuka says: mother and father are the very forms of God.
What it means
Tukaram collapses the whole machinery of pilgrimage into the parents standing in your own house. They are Kashi already, so there is no merit waiting at some distant shrine that is not already here. He points to Pundalik, whose service to his parents was so complete that the Supreme Brahman came and waited on a brick rather than interrupt it; that brick is why Vitthal stands at Pandhari. The instruction follows: be that attentive, and carry Narayana in the heart while you serve. The claim is radical and literal, not figurative: father and mother are forms of God, and to honor them is to worship Him.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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