Renunciation, the body cannot be saved
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पिंड पोसावे हें अधमाचें ज्ञान । विलास मिष्टान्न करूनियां ॥१॥
शरीर रक्षावें हा धर्म बोलती । काय असे हातीं तयाचिया ॥ध्रु.॥
क्षणभंगुर हें जाय न कळतां । ग्रास गिळि सत्ता नाहीं हातीं ॥२॥
कर्वतिलीं देहें कापियेलें मांस । गेले वनवासा शुकादिक ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे राज्य करितां जनक । अग्नीमाजी एक पाय जळे ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
To pamper the body with luxuries and fine food is the wisdom of the lowest kind. They say preserving the body is dharma, but what power does anyone truly have over it? This fragile thing perishes without warning; one cannot even swallow a morsel by one's own authority. Shuka and others sawed through their bodies and cut away their flesh, then departed into the forest. Says Tuka, even while Janaka ruled his kingdom, one of his feet was burning in fire.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
To pamper the body with luxuries and rich food is the wisdom of the lowest sort. They say guarding the body is dharma. But what power does anyone hold over it? This fragile thing breaks without warning. You cannot even swallow one mouthful by your own authority. Shuka and others sawed through their bodies, cut away their flesh, and went off into the forest. Tuka says: even as Janaka ruled his kingdom, one of his feet was burning in the fire.
What it means
Tukaram is attacking the project of saving and serving the body. To feed it luxuries and call that wisdom is, he says, the lowest understanding; and the claim that protecting the body is dharma collapses once you see how little control anyone has over it. The body is fragile, it breaks unannounced, and a person cannot so much as guarantee his next swallow. Against this he sets the detachment of the realized: sages like Shuka treated the body as nothing, and Janaka could rule a whole kingdom while inwardly unattached, as a king at his ease with one foot already in the fire. The point is self-examination: stop staking your life on a thing you do not own.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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