Social criticism, the false meditator
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भाव नाहीं काय मुद्रा वाणी । बैसे बगळा निश्चळ ध्यानीं ॥1॥
नाहीं चाड देवाची कांहीं । छळणें टोंके तस्करघाई ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याचा संग । नको शब्द स्पर्शअंग ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where is the devotion in one whose gestures, posture, and speech are mere show? A crane sits motionless, feigning meditation, but has no love for God; its aim is to deceive and strike like a thief. Says Tuka, avoid even the words and the touch and the company of such a person.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where is the devotion in one whose gestures, posture, and speech are all show? A crane stands stock-still as if deep in meditation, but it has no love for God; its aim is to cheat and to strike like a thief. Tuka says: keep away from such a one; do not take his words, do not let him touch you, do not keep his company.
What it means
Tukaram uses the image of the crane, perfectly still in the shallows while it waits to spear a fish, to expose the religion that is all posture and no love. The stillness looks like deep meditation, but the motive underneath is to deceive and to take, like a thief. The warning is sharp, avoid his words, his touch, his company, yet it points at a pattern, the use of holy appearance as a tool, rather than asking for contempt of any one person. The honest test it presses on the reader is inward: is my own stillness love of God, or is it a pose that is waiting to catch something.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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