Social criticism, half-hearted in the holy gathering
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कथे उभा अंग राखे जो कोणी । ऐसा कोण गणी तया पापा ॥1॥
येथें तो पातकी न येता च भला । रणीं कुचराला काय चाले ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐलपैल ते थडीचे । बुडतील साच मध्यभागीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who can count the sins of one who holds back from the sacred story, keeping his body rigid with resistance? Such a wrongdoer is better off not coming at all; a coward has no place on the battlefield. Says Tuka, those who stand on either bank are safe; it is those who linger in the middle current who drown.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Someone stands in the sacred story but holds his body back, stiff with resistance. Who can count the weight of that sin? Such a wrongdoer is better off not coming at all. What use is a coward on the battlefield? Tuka says: those who stand on either bank are safe. It is the ones who linger in the middle current who truly drown.
What it means
Tukaram is sharp about the half-committed devotee. To stand present at the singing of God's story while keeping the body and heart pulled back is worse, he says, than staying away; the coward in the middle of a battle only endangers everyone. The river image lands it: a person fully on one shore or the other is safe, but the one who wades out and then will not commit is the one swept under. The criticism aims at the pattern of holding back, urging us to enter wholly or not pretend to enter at all.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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