Moral ideal, patience the pure seed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अमृत अव्हेरें उचळलें जातां । विष आर्त्तभूतां आवश्यक ॥1॥
आदरासी मोल नये लावूं केजें । धीर शुद्धबीजें गोमटा तो ॥ध्रु.॥
खयाचिये अंगीं आपणे चाली । लावणी लाविली काय लागे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चाडे करा वेवसाव । आह्मांसी तो वाव धीर आहे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When nectar is tossed aside with contempt, poison becomes the necessity of suffering beings. One should not bargain over the price of eagerness; the one with patience and a pure seed is truly blessed. A body afflicted with disease moves on its own distorted course; what good are cosmetics applied over it? Says Tuka, you may hurry and bustle as you please; we have the patience and the space for it.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When nectar is thrown away in contempt, poison becomes what suffering beings must take. Do not haggle over the price of eagerness; the one with patience, the pure seed, is the truly good one. A body riddled with disease moves on its own twisted course; what use is paint laid over it? Tuka says: hurry and bustle as you please. We have the patience, and the room, for it.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts two responses to what is offered. Reject the nectar in scorn and you are left with poison, which is all the suffering then have to swallow. He refuses to price eagerness like a commodity and praises instead the patient one, whose patience is a pure seed that grows into something good. The diseased body that moves by its own distortion is his image for a corrupted nature: cosmetics laid over it change nothing, only the inner ground matters. The closing lines are quietly steady, letting the hurried do their bustling while he keeps the patience, and the space, to wait.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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