Social criticism, the learned beast
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पशु ऐसे होती ज्ञानी । चर्वणीं या विषयांचे ॥1॥
ठेवूनियां लोभीं लोभ । जाला क्षोभ आत्मत्वीं ॥ध्रु.॥
केला आणिकां वाढी पाक । खाणें ताक मूर्खासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मोठा घात । वाताहात हा देह ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Even the learned become like beasts, chewing the cud of sense pleasures. They heap greed upon greed, stirring agitation where the atman-state should dwell. They cook elaborate meals for others yet feed themselves only buttermilk. Says Tuka, what a great waste this human body becomes when it is so misused.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Even the learned become like beasts, chewing over these sense things. They pile greed on greed, and stir up turmoil where the self should rest. They cook rich meals for others, but feed themselves only buttermilk. Tuka says: a great loss, this body laid waste.
What it means
Tukaram turns his eye on learned people who, for all their knowledge, graze on sense pleasures like cattle chewing the cud. By heaping greed upon greed they wreck the very inwardness where the self should find rest. The sharp image of cooking feasts for others while living on thin buttermilk points at the pattern, not at any one person: knowing the good and serving it up to others while starving oneself of it. He calls the human body a great chance, and its misuse a ruin worth grieving, an invitation to look at one's own appetite.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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