Moral test, the slander that ruins all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव अवघें प्रतिपादी । वंदी सकळां एक निंदी ॥1॥
तेथें अवघें गेलें वांयां । विष घास एके ठायां ॥ध्रु.॥
सर्वांग कुरवाळी । उपटी एकच रोमावळी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चित्त । नाहीं जयाचें अंकित ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who praises God and all His ways yet slanders even a single being: all is lost thereby, like a single morsel of poison mixed into a whole meal. One who caresses the whole body yet pulls out even one hair causes pain. Says Tuka, one whose mind is not devoted and disciplined cannot truly be called God's own.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One who praises God and honors all His ways, yet slanders even a single being: with that, everything is lost, like one morsel of poison dropped into a whole meal. One who strokes the whole body, yet pulls out a single hair, still causes pain. Tuka says: the one whose mind is not surrendered cannot be called God's own.
What it means
Tukaram sets a single, exacting test for devotion. You may worship God and revere all his works, but if you slander even one being you have undone it all, the way one bite of poison spoils a whole meal. He drives it home with the body: caress the whole of someone and still tear out one hair, and you have hurt them. Reverence is not an average; it is broken by a single exception. The mark of belonging to God, he says, is a mind so surrendered that it makes no such exception. He turns the test inward, against the self that flatters God while wounding a neighbor.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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