Fierce rebuke, contempt for the guru
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गुरुपादाग्रींचें जळ । त्यास मानी जो विटाळ ॥1॥
संतीं वािळला जो खळ । नरकीं पचे चिरकाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
गुरुतीथाअ अनमान । यथासांग मद्यपान ॥2॥
गुरुअंगुष्टा न चोखी । मुख घाली वेश्येमुखीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे सांगों किती । मुखीं पडो त्याचे माती ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who considers the water from the guru's feet to be impure is cast out and condemned by the saints; he rots in hell for ages. To hesitate before the holy water of the guru is as sinful as drinking wine. He who refuses to honor the guru's toe yet presses his mouth to a faithless woman's lips is beneath contempt. Says Tuka, how much more shall I say? Let dirt fill the mouth of such a person.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The water from the tips of the guru's feet: whoever thinks it is unclean, that wicked one, cast out by the saints, rots in hell for a long age. To doubt the guru's holy water is the full sin of drinking wine. He who will not touch the guru's toe, yet puts his mouth on a harlot's mouth. Tuka says: how much shall I tell? Let dirt fall in such a person's mouth.
What it means
Tukaram attacks an inversion of values that disgusts him: the man who shrinks from honoring his guru while throwing himself at base pleasures. He ranks the slights bluntly, treating scorn for the guru's feet as grave as forbidden drink, and the refusal to bow as the mark of a heart already turned the wrong way. The harshness is aimed at the pattern, the soul that holds the holy cheap and the cheap holy, and is meant as a mirror for self-examination, not as license to despise a person. The closing curse is shock, a way of saying such a mouth has nothing worth speaking.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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