Discrimination, not all things are equal
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघे देव साध । परी या अवगुणांचा बाध ॥१॥
म्हणउनी नव्हे सरी । राहे एका एक दुरी ॥ध्रु.॥
ऊंस कांदा एक आळां । स्वाद गोडीचा निराळा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे नव्हे सरी । विष अमृताची परी ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All are God's creation, yet the affliction of bad qualities persists. That is why no two things can truly be compared; each remains at a distance from the other. Sugarcane and onion grow in the same plot, yet their taste and sweetness are entirely different. Says Tuka, poison and nectar can never be made equal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All things are made by God, yet the fault of bad qualities still clings to them. So they are not all the same; one stays far apart from another. Sugarcane and an onion grow in the same plot of ground, but their taste and their sweetness are nothing alike. Tuka says: they are not equal. It is the way poison differs from nectar.
What it means
Tukaram blocks a lazy conclusion: that because God made everything, everything is therefore the same and worth the same. He grants the first half, all is God's, but says the flaw of bad qualities still marks things, so they cannot be set side by side as equals. Two plants in one field, sugarcane and onion, drink the same soil yet come out wholly different in taste. The closing line makes the stake plain: the gap between good and corrupt is the gap between poison and nectar, and the seeker must learn to tell them apart rather than flatten the difference.
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