True worship, the signs of a living house
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जया नाहीं नेम एकादशीव्रत । जाणावें तें प्रेत शव लोकीं ॥१॥
त्याचें वय नित्य काळ लेखीताहे । रागें दात खाय कराकरा ॥ध्रु.॥
जयाचिये द्वारीं तुळसीवृंदावन । नाहीं तें स्मशान गृह जाणां ॥२॥
जये कुळीं नाहीं एक ही वैष्णव । त्याचा बुडे भवनदीतापा ॥३॥
विठोबाचें नाम नुच्चारी जें तोंड । प्रत्यक्ष तें कुंड रजकाचें ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे त्याचे काष्ठ हातपाय । कीर्तना नव जाय हरीचिया ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who keeps no Ekadashi vow, know him for a walking corpse in this world; Time counts out his days, gnashing its teeth at him. The house with no tulsi at its door, know it for a cremation ground. The family without a single devotee of God drowns in the heat of the ocean of existence. The mouth that never utters Vithoba's name is, plainly, a washerman's filthy pit. Says Tuka: his hands and feet are dead wood, for they never carry him to the kirtan of Hari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who keeps no Ekadashi vow, know him for a corpse walking in the world. Time is counting out his days, grinding its teeth at him in anger. The house with no tulsi plant at its door, know that house for a cremation ground. The family without a single devotee of God drowns in the heat of the river of existence. The mouth that never speaks Vithoba's name is, plainly, a washerman's filthy pit. Tuka says: his hands and feet are dead wood, for they never carry him to the singing of Hari's name.
What it means
Tukaram draws a hard line between a life turned toward God and one that is not, using the ordinary signs of Varkari devotion. No Ekadashi fast, no tulsi at the door, no devotee in the family, no Name on the lips, no feet that walk to the kirtan: each absence, he says, marks something already dead. The images are deliberately harsh, the walking corpse, the house that is a cremation ground, the mouth that is a washerman's dirty pit. He is not so much cursing such people as shocking them awake. A life without the Name, to him, is not neutral; it is a kind of death dressed up as living.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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