Moral ideal, take no pay for kirtan
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जेथें कीर्तन करावें । तेथें अन्न न सेवावें ॥1॥
बुका लावूं नये भाळा । माळ घालूं नये गळां ॥ध्रु.॥
तटावृषभासी दाणा। तृण मागों नये जाणा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे द्रव्य घेती । देती ते ही नरका जाती ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where you perform kirtan, do not accept food. Do not apply sacred ash to your forehead or wear a garland around your neck. Do not beg for grain or fodder from those who keep temple bulls. Says Tuka, those who take money for devotion, and those who give it, both go to hell.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where you sing kirtan, do not eat the food there. Do not let them mark your brow with paste, do not let them hang a garland on your neck. Do not beg grain or fodder from those who keep temple bulls, know this. Tuka says: those who take money for it, and those who give it, both go to hell.
What it means
Tukaram is laying down a rule of clean conduct for the singer of God's praise. Take no meal where you have sung, accept no paste on the brow, no garland on the neck, beg no grain or fodder; in short, draw no reward from the devotion you offer. The reasoning is that the moment kirtan is paid for it stops being worship and becomes a transaction. He makes the warning unsparing by condemning both sides at once: the one who takes money for the Name and the one who pays it both go to hell. The standard he sets is that devotion must stay free of any price.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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