Social criticism, the proud devotee
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तीर्थाटणें एकें तपें हुंबरती । नाथिले धरिती अभिमान ॥1॥
तैसे विष्णुदास नव्हती साबडे । एकाचिया पडे पायां एक ॥ध्रु.॥
अक्षरें आणिती अंगासी जाणीव । इच्छा ते गौरव पूज्य व्हावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विधिनिषधाचे डोहीं । पडिले त्यां नाहीं देव कधीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Some grow proud through pilgrimages and austerities, claiming hollow honor for themselves. The servants of Vishnu are not like that; they are simple, and each one bows at the other's feet. Book-learning brings a sense of self-importance and the desire to be revered and worshipped. Says Tuka, those who have fallen into the wells of scriptural do's and don'ts will never find God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Some grow proud from their pilgrimages and their one austerity. They take a hollow pride and hold to it. The servants of Vishnu are not like that. They are simple, and each one bows at the other's feet. Book-learning brings a sense of self-importance to the body. It breeds the wish to be honored, to be revered and worshipped. Tuka says: those who have fallen into the deep wells of scriptural do's and don'ts never find God.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts two kinds of religious life and names what spoils one of them. The proud man uses pilgrimage, austerity, and learning to swell himself, to claim honor and demand worship; the true servant of Vishnu is simple and bows at the next devotee's feet. The point is the direction of the self: religion can be turned into a ladder for the ego, and then it lifts you away from God instead of toward him. He calls scriptural rules a deep well: a man can drown in his own correctness about do's and don'ts and never reach the Lord they were meant to point at. The test is not how much you have done, but whether it has made you small enough to bow.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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