Social criticism, the slanderer of saints
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चाहाडाची माता । व्यभिचारीण तत्त्वता ॥1॥
पाहे संतांचें उणें । छिद्र छळावया सुनें ॥ध्रु.॥
जेणों त्याच्या वाचें । कांहीं सोडिलें गाठीचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे घात । व्हावा ऐसी जोडी मात ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The mother of a slanderer is an adulteress in truth. Such a one looks for faults in the saints, seeking openings to harass the virtuous. Whatever his tongue touches, something of his own store is spent. Says Tuka, he gathers his talk only to bring ruin.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The mother of a slanderer is truly an unfaithful wife. Such a man looks for the failings of the saints, hunting for openings to harass the good. Whatever his tongue lets slip, he is spending something out of his own store. Tuka says: he gathers his talk only to bring ruin.
What it means
Tukaram aims his sharpest contempt at the habit of hunting for faults in holy people, and the harshness is on the pattern, not on any one soul. The man who lives to find cracks in the saints, to find a handle for harassing them, is the target. The warning is that slander is self-spending: every word against the good draws down the speaker's own account. The closing line names the real motive, that such talk is hoarded for the sake of doing harm. The poem invites the listener to examine the fault-finding impulse in himself before it becomes a life.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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