Moral ideal, what does it cost you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पराविया नारी माउलीसमान । मानिलिया धन काय वेचे ॥१॥
न करितां परनिंदा द्रव्य अभिलाष । काय तुमचें यास वेचे सांगा ॥ध्रु.॥
बैसलिये ठायी म्हणतां रामराम । काय होय श्रम ऐसें सांगा ॥२॥
संताचे वचनीं मानितां विश्वास । काय तुमचें यास वेचे सांगा ॥३॥
खरें बोलतां कोण लागती सायास । काय वेचे यास ऐसें सांगा ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे देव जोडे याचसाटीं । आणीक ते आटी न लगे कांहीं ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If you regard another's woman as a mother, what does it cost you? If you refrain from slander and from coveting another's wealth, tell me, what does it cost you? Sitting in one place and repeating the name of Rama, tell me, what effort is there in that? If you trust the word of the saints, tell me, what does it cost you? Speaking the truth requires no effort; tell me, what is the expense? Says Tuka, God is won by just these things; no other contrivance is needed.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If you treat another man's wife as your own mother, what does it cost you? If you hold back from slander and from coveting other people's wealth, tell me, what does that cost you? To sit where you are and say the name of Rama, where is the hardship in that? To trust the word of the saints, what does it cost you? To speak the truth takes no special effort; tell me, what is the expense? Tuka says: God is won by just these things. No other elaborate scheme is needed.
What it means
Tukaram strips religion down to what anyone can do, and keeps asking the same disarming question: what does it cost you? Respect another's wife as a mother, refuse slander and envy, say God's name where you sit, trust the saints, tell the truth. None of these demands money, ritual, or special status; each is simply a choice. His point is that the whole path to God is built of such free and ordinary acts, and that the elaborate machinery people think they need is beside the point. Goodness is cheap; we only pretend it is hard.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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