Social criticism, the plagiarist of saints
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सालोमालो हरिचे दास । ह्मणउन केला अवघा नास॥1॥
अवघें बचमंगळ केलें । ह्मणती एकांचें आपुले ॥ध्रु.॥
मोडूनि संतांचीं वचनें । करिती आपणां भूषणें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कवी । जगामधीं रूढ दावी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
These imitators call themselves servants of Hari and thereby ruin everything. They have created a general mess, claiming the works of others as their own. Breaking the words of the saints, they fashion ornaments for themselves from the fragments. Says Tuka, the poet reveals this fraud, which has become commonplace in the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
These imitators call themselves servants of Hari, and so they ruin everything. They have made a general mess, claiming what others made as their own. They break the words of the saints and turn the pieces into ornaments for themselves. Tuka says: the poet shows up this fraud, which has become common all over the world.
What it means
Tukaram attacks the pattern of dressing up in borrowed holiness. Pretenders take the name servant of Hari while wrecking what that name means, and they pass off other people's work as their own. Worse, they break apart the saints' true words and wear the fragments as decoration for themselves. He says the poet's task is to expose this counterfeit, which has spread everywhere. The warning is to watch for the same theft in oneself: the urge to seem holy by quoting and claiming, instead of becoming what the words ask.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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