Counsel, keep good company
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गव्हाराचें ज्ञान अवघा रजोगुण । सुखवासी होऊन विषय भोगी ॥1॥
त्यासी ज्ञानउपदेश केला । संगेंविण त्याला राहावेना ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे संग उत्तम असावा । याविण उपावा काय सांगों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The knowledge of the pleasure-seeker is all passion. He dwells in comfort and indulges in sensory enjoyments. Even when spiritual teaching is offered to him, he cannot live without worldly company. Says Tuka, one must keep good company. Beyond this, what other remedy can I suggest?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The pleasure-seeker's knowledge is all restless passion. He lives in comfort and feeds on the senses. Even when you give him spiritual teaching, he cannot stay away from worldly company. Tuka says: one must keep good company. Apart from this, what other remedy can I name?
What it means
Tuka diagnoses the comfortable worldly man and prescribes one cure. Such a person's so-called knowledge is nothing but rajas, the drive toward enjoyment; he settles into ease and lives off sense-pleasures. Teaching alone will not move him, because the moment instruction ends he slides back into the company that holds him. So the remedy is not more doctrine but a change of company: surround yourself with the good, the satsang. Tuka offers it plainly as the one practical lever, asking what else there is to suggest, since the company we keep shapes us more than any lesson.
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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