Moral ideal, do not strike the defenseless
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वाखर घेउनि आलें । त्यासी तरवारेणें हालें ॥1॥
नव्हे आपुलें उचित । करुनि टाकावें फजित ॥ध्रु.॥
अंगुिळया मोडी। त्यासी काय सिलें घोडीं ॥2॥
नपुंसकासाठीं । तुका ह्मणे न लगे जेठी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who comes with a plough should not be met with a sword. It is not fitting to humiliate someone and cast them aside. Why crack your knuckles at one who comes unarmed? Says Tuka, for an impotent man, no great display is needed.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One who comes carrying a plough should not be met with a sword. It is not right to shame a man and throw him aside. Why crack your knuckles at someone who comes with empty hands? Tuka says: against a man who cannot fight, no great show of strength is needed.
What it means
Tukaram is laying down a rule of fairness about meeting the weak. The farmer with his plough, the unarmed man, the one who cannot fight back, all stand for those who come with no power to oppose you, and answering them with a sword is shameful, not strong. To humiliate such a person and cast him aside is named as unfitting, beneath what is right. The blunt last line strips the bully of his glory: there is no honor in overpowering someone who was never able to resist. The ideal is restraint and decency toward those at your mercy, and the satire is aimed at the cruelty that mistakes itself for courage.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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