Moral ideal, the fearless wrongdoer
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आचरे दोष न धरी धाक । परीपाक दुःखाचा ॥1॥
चांडाळ तो दुराचारी । अंगीकारी कोण त्या ॥ध्रु.॥
नव्हे संतान वोस घर । अंधकार कुळासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याचें दान । घेतां पतन दुःखासी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He commits faults without any fear; the result is only suffering. Who will accept such a wretched wrongdoer? He has no progeny; his house stands desolate, and darkness covers his lineage. Says Tuka, accepting gifts from such a person leads only to a downfall of sorrow.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He does wrong and keeps no fear of it. The ripening of it is only sorrow. He is an outcaste in his conduct, a corrupt man. Who will take him in? He has no children; his house stands empty; darkness covers his line. Tuka says: take a gift from such a person and you fall into sorrow.
What it means
Tukaram describes the person who sins without any inner dread, and traces what such fearlessness ripens into: only suffering. By his conduct, not his birth, he has made himself an outcaste, and the poem asks plainly who would shelter him. His house is left without children, desolate, his lineage swallowed in darkness. The closing turn widens the warning to the listener: even accepting a gift from such a person draws you down into his sorrow, so the verse cautions against being entangled with corruption, not just against committing it.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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