Diagnosis, the soul in fever
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जेवीं नवज्वरें तापलें शरीर । लागे तया क्षीर विषातुल्य ॥1॥
तेवीं परमार्थ जीहीं दुराविला । तयालागीं झाला सन्निपात ॥ध्रु.॥
कामिनी जयाच्या जाहाली नेत्रासी । देखी तो चंद्रासी पीतवर्ण ॥2॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Just as a body burning with fever finds even milk to taste like poison, so too one who has turned away from spiritual truth suffers a delirium of the soul. The one in whose eyes lust has taken hold sees even the moon as yellow and distorted.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Just as a body burning with new fever finds even milk to taste like poison, so the one who has pushed spiritual truth away has fallen into a delirium. The man whose eyes are seized by lust sees even the moon as sickly yellow.
What it means
Tukaram is diagnosing why truth can seem repellent to some people. A fevered body tastes nourishing milk as poison; the fault is in the sickness, not the milk. So too, the person who has driven spiritual truth away is in a kind of soul-delirium, and what is good seems bad to him. The last image makes it personal: lust in the eyes makes even the clear moon look diseased and yellow. The point is self-examination. If holy things look distorted or sour to you, suspect the fever and the craving in your own seeing before you blame what you are looking at.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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