Renunciation, company shapes you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपुलिया ऐसें करी । संग धरी ज्याचा हो ॥1 ॥
ह्मणउनि परपरते । वरवरते पळतसें ॥ध्रु.॥
लोभिक तें लोभा लावी। बांधल्या गोवी वांचूनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नामगोठी । पुरे भेटी तुझी देवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whoever you keep company with makes you like himself. That is why I flee from the worldly and the superficial. The greedy one infects others with greed. He traps all who are caught in his net. Says Tuka, let our conversation be of the Name alone. Your meeting, O God, is enough for me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whoever you keep company with makes you into himself. That is why I flee from the worldly and the shallow, keeping well away. The greedy man fastens his greed onto others; he ties up everyone caught in his net. Tuka says: let our talk be of the Name alone. Your meeting, O God, is enough for me.
What it means
Tukaram is explaining why he keeps his distance from certain company. Whoever you sit with remakes you in his own likeness, so company is not a small matter; it is a kind of fate. That is why he runs from the worldly and the superficial, staying at the edges. He gives the clearest case: a greedy man passes his greed to those around him, binding them in his own net. So he sets the one company he wants, talk of the Name, and the one meeting that satisfies him completely, the meeting with God.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
More in this theme →