Renunciation, the false renunciant
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संसाराचा माथां भार । कांहीं पर न ठेवीं ॥1॥
भक्तीची ते जाती ऐसी । सर्वस्वासी मुकावें ॥ध्रु.॥
भिक्षाणी वेवसाव। काला करितो गाढव ॥2॥
करुनि वस्ती बाजारीं । ह्मणवी कासया निस्पृही ॥3॥
प्रसादा आडुनि कवी । केलें तुप पाणी तेवीं ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे होंई सुर । किंवा निसुर मजुर ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not leave any part of the worldly burden unlet-go. The way of devotion is such: one must be stripped of everything. A beggar who runs a trade, having a donkey do the grinding work. Living in the marketplace, why claim to be a renunciant? Using prasad as a cover, he has turned the ghee into water. Says Tuka, be either a person of virtue or a plain laborer.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The burden of the world is on your head: do not keep back any part of it unlet-go. The way of devotion is like this: you must be stripped of everything. A beggar who runs a business, who keeps a donkey to do the grinding. He lives right in the marketplace; why does he call himself one who wants nothing? Using the offering as a cover, he has turned the ghee into water. Tuka says: be a person of real virtue, or else a plain laborer.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing the half-hearted renunciant who claims to have given up the world while quietly holding on to it. True devotion, he says, asks for everything: you cannot set down only part of the worldly load. The beggar who runs a trade, lives in the market, and still calls himself desireless is a fraud, and using religious offerings as a screen for gain only waters down what should be pure, like ghee turned to water. Tuka's demand is for honesty over pretense: be genuinely virtuous and renounce in truth, or drop the costume and earn your bread as an ordinary worker. The attack is on the hypocrisy, not on poverty or labor themselves.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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