Defense of saints, the slanderer
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतांच्या हेळणे बाटलें जें तोंड । प्रत्यक्ष तें कुंड चर्मकाचें ॥1॥
भेसळीचें वीर्य ऐशा अनुभवें । आपुलें परावें नाहीं खळा ॥ध्रु.॥
संतांचा जो शोध करितो चांडाळ । धरावा विठाळ बहु त्याचा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे केली प्रज्ञा या च साटीं । कांहीं माझे पोटीं शंका नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The mouth that insults the saints becomes as foul as a pit of leather. The wicked one, tainted in his very nature, knows neither what is his own nor another's. He who seeks faults in the saints is cast out from grace; one must shun his company as one shuns what is defiling. Says Tuka, my intellect was given for this very purpose, and I have no doubt in my chitta about it.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The mouth that mocks the saints is fouled; it is plainly a tanner's pit. By such experience his seed is mixed and base; the wicked one knows neither his own nor another's. He who hunts for faults in the saints is an outcaste; one must shun his touch as a great defilement. Tuka says: my understanding was given for just this purpose, and in my heart there is no doubt of it.
What it means
This abhanga defends the saints with deliberately harsh imagery, and the heat is aimed at the slandering habit, not at any human soul beyond rescue. The mouth that mocks the holy has fouled itself; the one who lives to find fault has lost the sense of what is his own and what is sacred. Tukaram says such company should be shunned the way one avoids defilement, because the fault-finding spirit is contagious to the heart. He ends by claiming his own clarity was given precisely to say this, and he holds it without doubt. The challenge to the reader is to catch the fault-hunting impulse in oneself before it hardens.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
More in this theme →