Social criticism, the famine of truth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपल्या च स्काुंफ्दें । जेथें तेथें घेती छंदें ॥1॥
पडिला सत्याचा दुष्काळ । बहु फार जाली घोळ ॥ध्रु.॥
विश्वासाचे माठ । त्याचे कपाळीं तें नाट ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे घाणा । मूढा तीथाअ प्रदिक्षणा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By their own scheming, wherever they go, they pursue their whims. A famine of truth has fallen upon the land; great confusion abounds. Those who are trusting become the stage for trickery upon their foreheads. Says Tuka, for the foolish, pilgrimages and circumambulations become nothing more than grinding at the mill.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By their own scheming, wherever they are, people chase their own whims. A famine of truth has fallen; the muddle has grown vast. The trusting become the stage on which fraud is played out across their foreheads. Tuka says: for the fool, pilgrimage and circling the shrine are only turning the oil-press.
What it means
Tukaram names a sickness in the religious world around him: people act on private scheming and appetite while truth has dried up like a famine. He points to how the guileless and trusting get used, made into the surface on which others stage their deceit. The sting at the end falls on empty ritual: pilgrimage and walking circles around a shrine, done without truth, are no better than an ox plodding the oil-press, hard labor that goes nowhere. The poem aims at the pattern of hollow show, calling the listener to ask whether his own devotion has any truth in it.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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