Trust against argument, Hari's company is the only journey
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं त्याची शंका वैकुंठनायका । नेणती ते एकाविण दुजा ॥1॥
जाणतियां सवें येऊं नेदी हरि । तर्कवादी दुरी दुराविले॥2॥
वादियासि भेद निंदा अहंकार । देऊनियां दूर दुराविले ॥3॥
दुरावले दूर आशाबद्ध देवा । करितां या सवा कुटुंबाची ॥4॥
चित्तीं द्रव्यदारा पुत्रादिसंपत्ती । समान ते होती पशु नर ॥5॥
नरक साधिले विसरोनि देवा । बुडाले ते भवा नदीमाजी ॥6॥
जीहीं हरिसंग केला संवसारीं । तुका ह्मणे खरी खेप त्यांची ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
They had no suspicion about the Lord of Vaikuntha. They knew no one besides Him. God does not let the argumentative and disputatious come near. He keeps them far away. To those given to dispute, He gives divisiveness, slander, and pride, keeping them at a distance. Those bound by desire are kept far from God, entangled as they are in family concerns. Those whose chittas are occupied with wealth, women, children, and possessions become no different from beasts. Those who forget God and sink into the river of worldly existence have earned their place in hell. Those who kept Hari's company in this world, says Tuka, theirs was the only journey that mattered.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
They had no doubt about the Lord of Vaikuntha; they knew no one but the One. Hari does not let the clever come along with him; the arguers he keeps far off. To the men of dispute he hands division, slander, and pride, and pushes them away. Far off are kept the desire-bound, busy with the affairs of the household. With wealth, wife, children and property in their hearts, men become no different from beasts. They have built their own hell, forgetting God, and have drowned in the river of the world. But those who kept Hari's company in this world: Tuka says: theirs was the journey that was real.
What it means
Tukaram sets the trusting cowherds against the clever arguers. The cowherds had no suspicion of the Lord and knew no one but him, and that simple trust is what lets them stay near, while the disputatious are kept at a distance and left with the very division, slander and pride their arguing breeds. He widens it to all who are bound by desire, whose hearts are full of wealth, wife and children, saying such people become no better than beasts and drown in the river of worldly life, building their own hell by forgetting God. The point lands in the final line: only those who kept Hari's company made a journey that was real. The poem aims its sharpness at the pattern of grasping cleverness, and calls the reader to plain trust instead.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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