Social criticism, the hypocrite teacher
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तक्र शिष्या मान । दुग्धा ह्मणे नारायण ॥1॥
ऐशीं ज्ञानाचीं डोबडें । आशा विटंबिलीं मूढें ॥ध्रु.॥
उपदेश तो जगा । आपण सोंवळा इतका मांगा ॥2॥
रसनाशिश्नाचे अंकित । तुका ह्मणे वरदळ िस्पत ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He gives buttermilk to his disciples and calls the milk an offering to Narayana. Such are the tattered rags of his so-called knowledge; desire has ruined the fool. He preaches to the world while keeping himself pure, as far removed from practice as one cast out. Says Tuka, a slave to his tongue and his loins, his surface sheen is nothing but brass.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He hands his disciples buttermilk and calls the milk an offering to Narayana. Such are the tattered bundles of his knowledge; desire has made a fool of him and disgraced him. He preaches to the whole world while keeping himself apart and clean, as far from his own teaching as an outcaste is kept away. Tuka says: a slave to his tongue and his loins, his shine on the surface is only brass.
What it means
Tukaram exposes the teacher who keeps the good thing for himself and passes off the lesser thing on others, giving disciples buttermilk while reserving and renaming the milk. His knowledge, dressed up to look like wealth, is really rags, and craving has both fooled and shamed him. The deepest charge is the split between word and life: he preaches to everyone yet stays as far from his own teaching as one cast out, ruled underneath by appetite and lust. The brass that only looks like gold names the whole problem, a surface sheen with no metal behind it. The verse aims at the pattern of teaching one thing and living another, and asks the listener to test the shine.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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