Social criticism, the absent mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जवळी नाहीं चित्त । काय मांडियेलें प्रेत ॥1॥
कैसा पाहे चिद्रद्रािष्ट । दीप स्नेहाच्या शेवटीं ॥ध्रु.॥
कांतेलेंसें श्वान । तैसें दिशा हिंडे मन ॥2॥
त्याचे कानीं हाणे । कोण बोंब तुका ह्मणे॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the mind is not present, what use is the body sitting there like a corpse? He stares vacantly, like a lamp at the last flicker of its oil. His mind wanders in every direction like a starving dog. Says Tuka, who will shout a warning into such deaf ears?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the mind is not here, what use is the body set up like a corpse? See how empty his gaze is, like a lamp at the last flicker of its oil. His mind runs in every direction like a starving dog. Tuka says: who can shout a warning into ears like his?
What it means
Tukaram pictures a man present in body but gone in mind. He sits in the holy gathering like a corpse propped up, his stare as thin as a lamp guttering on the last of its oil. While he sits still, his mind is a starving dog roaming everywhere, hunting elsewhere. The closing line is the sorrow of it: no warning can reach ears that absent. The poem turns the listener to ask whether their own attention is truly present or only their body.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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