Renunciation, letting it all burn
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघा च अन्यायी । तेथें एकल्याचें काई ॥1॥
आतां अवघें एकवेळें । जळोनि सरो तें निराळें ॥ध्रु.॥
काय माझें खरें । एवढें च राखों बरें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां । परिहार न लगे चित्ता ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When injustice is everywhere, what can a single person do? Let it all be burned away in one stroke, and let what is pure remain. What can I truly call my own? Let me guard at least this much. Says Tuka, now let the mind find no more need for debate and remedy.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Everything here is in the wrong; what can one person alone do about it? Now let it all burn away at once, and let what is set apart, the pure, remain. What of it is truly mine? Let me keep safe only that much. Tuka says: now the mind has no need of any remedy or argument.
What it means
Tukaram looks at a world full of injustice and admits a single person cannot set it right. So he stops trying to patch it and lets the whole tangle burn off in one stroke, asking only that what is genuinely apart and pure be left standing. He tests his attachments with one question, what is actually mine, and answers that the only thing worth guarding is that pure remainder. The poem ends in a settled mind: no more scheming for fixes, no more inner debate, because once you see what truly belongs to you, the struggle to remedy everything else falls away.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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