Metaphor, the world mirrors your own state
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आंधळ्यासि जन अवघे चि आंधळे । आपणासि डोळे दृष्टी नाहीं ॥१॥
रोग्या विषतुल्य लागे हें मिष्टान्न । तोंडासि कारण चवी नाहीं ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे शुद्ध नाहीं जो आपण । तया त्रिभुवन अवघें खोटें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
To a blind man, all the world appears blind, for he has no sight of his own. To the sick man, even a delicious meal tastes like poison, for his tongue has lost all flavor. Says Tuka, one who is not pure within will find all three worlds to be false.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
To a blind man, the whole world looks blind, because he himself has no sight. To a sick man, even sweet, rich food tastes like poison, because his mouth has lost its sense of taste. Tuka says: the one who is not pure within finds all three worlds false.
What it means
Tukaram teaches that what you see outside is colored by your own condition. The blind man assumes everyone is blind, and the sick man finds delicious food bitter as poison; in each case the fault is in the perceiver, not in the world or the food. He turns this into a mirror for the inner life: a person who is impure within will find the whole of the three worlds false and tainted. The poem points the reader back at himself, that the flaw he keeps seeing everywhere may be the report of his own unpurified heart.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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