Social criticism, the hollow boaster
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
घरीं रांडा पोरें मरती उपवासीं । सांगे लोकांपासीं थोरपण ॥१॥
नेऊनियां घरा दाखवावें काय । काळतोंडा जाय चुकावूनि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आम्ही जाणों त्या प्रमाण । ठकावे हे जन तैसे नहों ॥३॥
जोहार - अभंग ३
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
His wife and children starve at home, yet he boasts of his greatness before the public. If someone were taken to his house, what would they see? The shame-faced one would slip away to avoid them. Says Tuka, we know the true measure of such a one. We are not the sort who can be deceived.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
His wife and children are starving at home, and yet he goes about boasting of his greatness in public. Take someone back to his house and what would they find? The shame-faced man would slip away to avoid being seen. Tuka says: we know exactly what such a person is worth. We are not the kind who can be fooled.
What it means
A short, sharp portrait of the hollow boaster, the man who performs importance abroad while his own family goes hungry at home. The test Tukaram applies is simple and merciless: would his public face survive a visit to his actual house? It would not, and so he avoids being seen there. The closing note is the satirist's confidence: such pretense fools the crowd but not the discerning, and Tukaram counts himself among those who can read the true worth behind the show. The gap between the public boast and the private reality is the whole of the man.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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