True worship, chanting without conduct
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
इंिद्रयांसी नेम नाहीं । मुखीं राम ह्मणोनि काई ॥1॥
जेविं मासीसंगें अन्न । सुख नेदी तें भोजन ॥ध्रु.॥
कीर्तन करावें । तैसें करूनी दावावें ॥2॥
हें तों अंगीं नाहीं चिन्हें । गाइलें वेश्येच्या ढव्यानें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे नका रागा । संत शिवूं नेदिती अंगा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the senses are not disciplined, what use is it to chant Rama with the mouth? It is like food cooked with a fly in it; such a meal gives no satisfaction. One should perform kirtan and live accordingly, demonstrating it by one's own conduct. These marks are absent from your person; it is as if you have been singing from a deceiver's songbook. Says Tuka, do not be angry; the saints will not let such a one come near.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the senses keep no discipline, what is the use of saying Rama with the mouth? It is like food cooked with a fly in it; that meal gives no pleasure. You should do kirtan, and then live it out, showing it by what you do. These marks are not on your body; you have sung as if from a deceiver's songbook. Tuka says: do not be angry. The saints will not let such a one touch them.
What it means
Tukaram is attacking the pattern of chanting God's name while the life behind it stays undisciplined. His test is conduct: the name on the tongue means nothing if the senses run loose, just as a meal is spoiled past eating by a single fly. Real kirtan, he says, must be matched by a life that proves it, and when those marks are missing the singing is borrowed and false, like songs taken from a cheat's book. He turns to such a person directly but tells them not to take it as personal contempt; the warning is about the gap between word and deed, and the consequence is plain, that the saints keep their distance from a life that does not match its own praise.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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