Moral ideal, the company of the false
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दुर्जनासि करी साहे । तो ही दंड हे लाहे ॥१॥
शिंदळीच्या कुंटणी वाटा । संग खोटा खोट्याचा ॥ध्रु.॥
येर येरा कांचणी भेटे । आगी उठे तेथूनी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कापूं नाकें । पुढें आणिकें शिकविती ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who tolerates a wicked person, he too earns the punishment. The lanes of the brothel belong to the faithless; the company of the false is with the false. When one trickster meets another, fire springs up between them. Says Tuka, cut off their noses, and they only teach others to do worse.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whoever shields a wicked person shares in his punishment too. The brothel lanes belong to the faithless; the false keep company only with the false. When one cheat meets another, fire breaks out between them. Tuka says: cut off their noses to shame them, and they will only teach the next person to do worse.
What it means
A hard-eyed look at complicity and bad company. To protect a wicked person, Tukaram says, is to earn a share of his guilt; the false naturally gather with the false, and when two cheats meet, the result is destruction. The grim final image is about the limits of punishment: shame a shameless person, even brutally, and he does not reform; he simply passes the cunning on. The teaching underneath is to be careful whose company you keep, inwardly and outwardly, because association is never neutral. You take on what you tolerate.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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