Social criticism, religion without surrender
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवाचे म्हणोनि देवीं अनादर । हें मोठें आश्चर्य वाटतसे ॥१॥
आतां येरा जना म्हणावें तें काई । जया भार डोई संसाराचा ॥ध्रु.॥
त्यजुनी संसार अभिमान सांटा । जुलूम हा मोटा दिसतसे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे अळस करूनियां साहे । बळें कैसे पाहें वांयां जाती ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It is astonishing that the gods themselves neglect what belongs to God. What then can be said of ordinary people, who carry the burden of worldly life upon their heads? Renouncing the world while hoarding pride seems like a great tyranny. Says Tuka, see how they waste themselves through laziness, letting their strength drain away for nothing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those who call themselves God's own, yet the gods themselves treat what belongs to God with neglect. This strikes me as a great wonder. If even they do this, what is there to say about ordinary people, who carry the load of worldly life on their heads? To renounce the world and still hoard your pride looks like a great tyranny. Tuka says: see how, through laziness, they let themselves be wasted; see how their strength drains away for nothing.
What it means
Tukaram is astonished at religion that goes through the motions while neglecting the very God it claims. If even those reckoned holy are careless toward what is God's, ordinary people, bent under the weight of worldly life, are hardly to be blamed. He names a particular hypocrisy: people make a show of renouncing the world while quietly clinging to their pride, and he calls that a kind of violence, a fraud against the self. The closing lines point at sloth, the half-hearted seeking that lets a life and its strength bleed away for nothing. The poem turns the listener toward self-examination: is my own renunciation real, or just pride in a new costume?
Worldly Life
The perplexities of action, karma, and navigating life in the world.
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