Renunciation, easy to say, costly to live
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बोल बोलतां वाटे सोपें । करणी करितां टीर कांपे ॥1॥
नव्हे वैराग्य सोपारें । मज बोलतां न वटे खरें ॥ध्रु.॥
विष खावें ग्रासोग्रासीं । धन्य तो चि एक सोसी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे करूनि दावी । त्याचे पाय माझे जीवीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Speaking about it seems easy, but when one attempts to practice it, the body trembles. True renunciation is not a simple matter; when I speak of it, even my own words do not ring true. To swallow poison with every morsel, blessed indeed is the one who can endure that. Says Tuka, the one who demonstrates it by living it, his feet dwell in my heart.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Talking about it sounds easy. Doing it makes your body shake. Renunciation is no small or cheap thing. When I even speak of it, my own words do not ring true to me. It is like swallowing poison with every mouthful. Blessed is the one, the only one, who can bear that. Tuka says: the one who shows it by living it, his feet I hold in my heart.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing the gap between speaking of renunciation and actually living it. The words come easily; the deed makes the body tremble, because true vairagya is not the cheap, comfortable thing it is often made out to be. He turns the blade on himself, admitting that even his own talk of it sounds false in his ears when he has not paid its price. He likens the practice to swallowing poison at every meal, a daily, unglamorous endurance that almost no one sustains. So he reserves his reverence not for those who preach it but for the rare one who proves it by living it, and to that person he bows in his heart.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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