Moral ideal, do not crush the flower
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
परिमळ म्हणूनी चोळूं नये फूल । खाऊं नये मूल आवडतें ॥१॥
मोतियाचें पाणी चाखूं नये स्वाद । यंत्र भेदुनि नाद पाहूं नये ॥२॥
कर्मफळ म्हणुनी इच्छूं नये काम । तुका म्हणे वर्म दावूं लोकां ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One should not crush a flower for the sake of its fragrance, nor eat the root of a plant one loves. One should not taste the lustre of a pearl, nor break open an instrument to find the sound. One should not desire action for the sake of its fruit. Tuka says, this is the crux I would show the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not crush a flower just to get at its scent. Do not eat the root of the plant you love. Do not taste a pearl to sample its lustre. Do not break open the instrument to find where the sound lives. And do not perform an action only to seize its fruit. Tuka says: this is the secret I would show the world.
What it means
A chain of images for a single teaching: do not destroy the living thing to grasp the quality you want from it. Crush the flower and the fragrance is gone; eat the root and the plant dies; break the instrument and the music is lost. Then he lands the point he has been circling: do not do an action merely to seize its fruit, for grasping at the result spoils the act, the way crushing spoils the flower. This is the Gita's teaching of desireless action, put in homely pictures, and he calls it the secret, the crux, he most wants the world to see.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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