Moral firmness, refusing the temptress
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पराविया नारी रखुमाईसमान । हें गेलें नेमून ठायींचें चि ॥१॥
जाई वो तूं माते न करीं सायास । आम्ही विष्णुदास नव्हों तैसे ॥ध्रु.॥
न साहावें मज तुझें हें पतन । नको हें वचन दुष्ट वदों ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तुज पाहिजे भ्रतार । तरी काय नर थोडे जाले ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I regard another man's wife as I would Rakhumai herself; this has been my firm resolve from the very beginning. Go away, O woman, do not trouble yourself; we are not the kind of servants of Vishnu who would fall. I cannot bear to witness your downfall; do not utter such wicked words. Says Tuka, if you need a husband, are there so few men in the world?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Another man's wife I hold as I would hold Rakhumai herself. This has been my fixed resolve from the very start. Go away, woman; do not trouble yourself. We are not the kind of servants of Vishnu who fall. I cannot bear to watch your downfall. Do not speak such wicked words. Tuka says: if you need a husband, are there so few men in the world?
What it means
Here Tukaram puts the resolve into action, turning away a woman who comes to tempt him. He has long held that any other man's wife is to him as sacred as Rakhumai, the Lord's own consort, so the boundary is settled before the test arrives. His refusal is firm but not contemptuous: he says he cannot bear to see her fall, naming her welfare and not only his own purity. The closing line lets her go without cruelty, pointing her back to the ordinary world where, if she truly wants a husband, there is no shortage of men, only this one path she may not take.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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