Renunciation, the churning that cannot be undone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पडिलों बाहेरि आपल्या कर्तव्यें । संसाराचा जीवें वीट आला ॥1॥
एकामध्यें एक नाहीं मिळों येत । ताक नवनीत निडिळया ॥ध्रु.॥
दोनी जालीं नांवें एकाच्या मथनें । भुस सार गुणें वेगळालीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कोठें वसे मुक्ताफळ । सिंपल्याचें स्थळ खंडलिया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have fallen outside my own doing, and worldly life has become utterly distasteful to my jiva. Buttermilk and butter, once one, cannot be mixed again after churning. The churning has produced two names from one, separating chaff from essence by their inherent qualities. Says Tuka, where does the fruit of liberation dwell? In the very place where the shell has been broken.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have fallen outside my own duties; my heart is sick of worldly life. Once butter and buttermilk are churned apart, they cannot be mixed back together. The churning made two names from one, separating chaff from essence by their own nature. Tuka says: where does the fruit of freedom live? In the place where the shell has been broken open.
What it means
Tukaram describes a turning that cannot be reversed. Worldly life has become so distasteful that he has slipped out of his ordinary round of duties, and there is no going back, just as churned butter can never return to milk. The work of churning has sorted what he is: essence parted from chaff, each settling by its true nature. He closes with the law of the harvest: the fruit of liberation is found only where the outer shell is cracked, where the false covering is broken and the kernel laid bare.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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