Renunciation, the devotee leaves karma behind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
षडधसीं रांधिलें खापरीं घातलें । चोहोटा ठेविलें मध्यरात्रीं ॥1॥
त्यासी सदाचारी लोक न शिवती । श्वानासी नििश्चती फावलें तें ॥ध्रु.॥
तैसें दुष्टकर्म जालें हरिभक्ता । त्यागिली ममता विषयासक्ति ॥2॥
इहपरलोक उभय विटाळ । मानिती केवळ हरिचे दास ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा आवडे हे सेवा । अनुदिनीं व्हावा पूर्ण हेतु ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Food cooked in the six forbidden ways, placed in a broken pot, left at the crossroads at midnight: no virtuous person will touch it, but a dog surely finds it and eats it freely. Just so, when one becomes a devotee of Hari, all sinful karma is abandoned. The pleasures of this world and the next are both considered defilement by the true servants of Hari. Says Tuka, O God, may this service be dear to You, and may my devotion be fulfilled day after day.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Food cooked in the six forbidden ways, dropped into a broken pot, left at the crossroads at midnight: no decent person will touch it, but a dog comes upon it and eats it freely. Just so, once a man becomes a devotee of Hari, his evil deeds are dropped behind him. He gives up the grip of attachment and the clinging to pleasures. This world and the next, both, the servants of Hari count as defilement. Tuka says: O God, may this service be dear to You, and may my whole purpose be fulfilled day after day.
What it means
Tukaram uses a stark image to show what happens to sin once a person turns to God. Impure food set out at midnight is refused by everyone respectable and left for a stray dog; in the same way, the devotee simply walks away from his evil karma and lets it fall to whatever will take it. With it he lets go of attachment and of the hunger for sense pleasures. He goes further: the true servant of Hari treats both the rewards of this world and the heavens of the next as defilement, wanting neither. The poem ends not in boasting but in prayer, asking that this very renunciation be pleasing to God and that the devotee's one aim be fulfilled each day.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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