Social criticism, the squandered human life
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तोंडें खाये फार । पादे बोचा करी मार ॥1॥
एक ऐसे ते शाहाणे । आपुले अधीन तें नेणें ॥ध्रु.॥
कुले घालूनि उघडे। रागें पाहे लोकांकडे ॥2॥
खेळे जुतकर्म । मग बोंबली जुलूम ॥3॥
निजतां आला मोहो । वीतां ह्मणे मेला गोहो ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे त्यांनीं। मनुष्यपणा केली हानी ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He eats enormously, then kicks and punches in all directions. Such is the cleverness of some: they do not know what lies within their own power. He locks himself in, then strips naked and glares at the world in rage. He plays gambling games and then cries out about injustice. When he sleeps, desire overcomes him; when it passes, he wails as if someone has died. Says Tuka, such people have squandered the gift of being human.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He eats a great deal, then kicks and punches in every direction. Such is the wisdom of some: they do not know what is in their own power. He shuts himself in, strips bare, and glares at people in rage. He plays at gambling, then howls that he has been wronged. When he lies down, desire takes him; when it passes, he wails as if someone has died. Tuka says: such people have ruined the gift of being human.
What it means
Tukaram lists the moves of a life run by appetite and impulse rather than self-command. The man gorges and then lashes out, lives in rage and shamelessness, gambles and then cries injustice, is ruled by desire and then by remorse, swinging from craving to wailing with no center of his own. The thread through every example is the line in the refrain: he does not know what lies within his own power. The criticism points at the pattern, the ungoverned self, and asks the listener to examine it. To live this way, Tukaram says, is to waste the rare chance that a human birth is.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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