Social criticism, devotion for hire
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
उभ्या बाजारांत कथा । हे तों नावडे पंढरिनाथा॥1॥
अवघें पोटासाटीं ढोंग । तेथें कैंचा पांडुरंग ॥ध्रु.॥
लावी अनुसंधान। कांहीं देईल ह्मणऊन ॥2॥
काय केलें रांडलेंका । तुला राजी नाहीं तुका ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Performing katha in the open marketplace does not please Pandharinath. It is all pretense for the sake of the belly; where is Panduranga in that? One fixes one's attention hoping someone will give something. Says Tuka, what have you accomplished, you wretch? Tuka is not pleased with you.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Telling the sacred story out in the open marketplace: Pandharinath does not love that. It is all a show for the sake of the belly. Where is Panduranga in that? You fix your attention on the crowd, hoping someone will give you something. Tuka says: what have you done, you wretch? Tuka is not pleased with you.
What it means
Tukaram turns on the performer who recites holy katha as a way to earn. The marketplace is not the problem; the motive is. When the story is told to fill the belly and the eyes are watching the crowd for a coin, Vitthal is simply not there in it, however pious the words sound. The poet does not spare himself the harsh word, and the danger he names is one any reciter or teacher can fall into: the moment the audience becomes a source of income, attention slides off God and onto what they might give. He ends by withholding the one approval that matters, his own honest verdict, because God is not pleased with worship done for pay.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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