Discernment, when silence is best
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आळणी ऐसें कळों आलें । त्यासी भलें मौन्य चि॥1॥
नये कांहीं वेचूं वाणी । वेडे घाणीसांगातें ॥ध्रु.॥
वेगळें तें देहभावा । भ्रम जीवा माजिरा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कवतुक केलें । किंवा भलें दवडितां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When I see that someone is tasteless and indifferent, silence is the best response. There is no use wasting words; do not walk alongside fools to the oil press. What is separate from bodily identity is something else entirely; the bewildered jiva is caught in an inner labyrinth. Says Tuka, was this all a sport, or have we been throwing away what was good?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When you see that someone is dull and indifferent, silence is the better answer. Do not waste your words. Do not walk to the oil press alongside fools. What is apart from the body-sense is something altogether else. The bewildered soul is caught in an inner maze. Tuka says: was all this a game, or have we been throwing away what was good?
What it means
Tukaram counsels restraint with those who cannot or will not hear. When a person is tasteless and unmoved, words are wasted breath, and to keep their company is to be ground down with them like grain at the oil press. He then turns to the real distinction: what lies beyond bodily identity is a wholly different order, and the confused soul keeps wandering a maze inside itself. The poem ends in honest self-questioning rather than scorn, asking whether the whole effort was sport or whether something genuinely good has been squandered.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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