Driving off shame, Rama my master
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नको येऊं लाजे होय तूं परती । भजों दे श्रीपती सखा माझा ॥1॥
तुझे संगतीनें मोटा जाला घात । जालों मी अंकित दुर्जनाचा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे रांडे घेइन काठीवरी । धनी सहाकारी राम केला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not come, O shame, turn back. Let me worship my friend Shripati in peace. By your company, great harm has been done; I have become enslaved to the wicked. Says Tuka, O wretched shame, I will take a stick to you; I have made Rama my master and protector.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not come near me, shame. Turn back. Let me worship Shripati, my friend, in peace. Your company has done me great harm. Because of you I became the servant of the wicked. Tuka says: I will take a stick to you, you wretch. I have made Rama my master and my helper.
What it means
Tukaram turns on the social shame that keeps him from open worship and treats it as a person to be driven out. He says that shame, the fear of how others see him, has been ruinous: by obeying it he ended up enslaved to bad company instead of serving God. So he refuses it outright and even threatens it with a stick, naming Rama as his real master and protector. The point is that worry about reputation is itself the wicked master that must be beaten back before one can love God freely.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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