Social criticism, the hollow show
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
घालुनियां मापीं । देवभक्त बैसले जपीं ॥1॥
तैसी होते सांडउलंडी । निजनिजांची मुडी ॥ध्रु.॥
अमुपीं उखतें । आपण वोस आपण यातें ॥2॥
देव आतां जाला । उगवे संकोच वहिला॥3॥
अखंड नेलें वेठी । भार सत्याविण गांठी ॥4॥
आडकिला झोंपा । रिता किळवरचा खोंपा ॥5॥
गोदातीरीं आड । करिते करविते द्वाड॥6॥
तुका ह्मणे बळें । उपदेशाचें तोंड काळें ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
False devotees have sat measuring devotion by outward show, yet their inner lives topple over. They claim authority they do not possess, and are themselves hollow. God has now come; let this pretense be dissolved at once. They have been pressed into forced service, carrying burdens without truth. Caught in slumber, their hut of sincerity stands empty. Along the Godavari's bank they create mischief. Says Tuka, by force they blacken the face of true teaching.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
False devotees sit measuring devotion by outward show. Inside, their lives topple over. Each one falls in his own way. They claim authority they do not have. They are hollow within. Now God has come; let this pretense be dissolved at once. They have been pressed into forced labor, carrying loads with no truth in them. They are caught asleep. The hut of sincerity stands empty. Along the bank of the Godavari they make mischief. Tuka says: by force they blacken the face of true teaching.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing the religion that lives on the surface. People weigh devotion by what can be seen and counted, but the inner life has nothing under it and collapses. They take on a teacher's authority they were never given, and the pose is empty. The poem names the cost of this: such people carry their religious duty as forced labor, a load without truth, and they spread confusion even at the holy bank where others come to pray. The harshness is aimed at the pattern of empty display, the temptation to perform piety, not at any one soul; the warning is to look whether your own devotion has anything inside it.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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