Renunciation, beyond honor and shame
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मानूं कांहीं आह्मी आपुलिया स्वइच्छा । नाहीं तरि सरिसा रंकरावो ॥1॥
आपुल्या उदास आहों देहभावीं । मग लज्जाजीवीं चाड नाहीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे खेळों आह्मी सहजलीळे । ह्मणोनी निराळे सुख दुःख ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If we honored our own desires, then rich and poor would be equal. We are indifferent to the sense of the body; we have no craving for honor or the fear of shame. Says Tuka, we play in the natural ease of being; therefore joy and sorrow stand apart from us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If we lived by our own wishes, then rich and poor would stand as one to us. We are indifferent to the sense of the body, so we have no greed for honor and no fear of shame. Tuka says: we play in the natural ease of being, and so joy and sorrow stand apart from us.
What it means
Tukaram describes the freedom of one who has let go of the body's claims. When the sense of being this body falls away, the difference between rich and poor loses its grip, and with it both the hunger for honor and the dread of disgrace. What others spend their lives managing simply does not move him. He calls his way of living a play in the natural ease of being, sahaja, effortless and unforced. From that ground the pairs that rule ordinary life, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, no longer reach him; they stand apart while he plays free.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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