Social criticism, the worthless instructor
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लचाळाच्या कामा नाहीं ताळावाळा । न कळे ओंगळा उपदेश ॥1॥
वचनचर्येची न कळे चांचणी । ऐसी संघष्टनी अमंगळ ॥ध्रु.॥
समय न कळे वेडगळ बुिद्ध । विजाती ते शुिद्ध चांच चाट ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे याचा धिक्कार चि बरा । बहुमति खराहूनि हीन ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A careless person's work has neither order nor discipline. The unclean one does not understand instruction. There is no way to test the sincerity of his words; such company is inauspicious. He cannot sense the right moment; his intellect is foolish. One of a foreign temperament, purity is beyond his grasp. Says Tuka, contempt for such a person is quite appropriate; one of many opinions is worse than the truly ignorant.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A careless person's work has no order, no discipline. The unclean one does not understand instruction. There is no way to test the truth of his words. Keeping such company is foul. He cannot sense the right moment; his mind is foolish. He is of a base temper; purity is beyond his reach. He is shallow, a windbag. Tuka says: contempt for such a one is fitting. A man of many opinions is worse than the truly ignorant.
What it means
Tukaram is drawing a hard line around a kind of person: the careless, impure man whose words cannot be trusted and whose company corrupts. He has no sense of order, no sense of the right moment, no grasp of purity, only a flood of opinions. The sharp closing claim is that such a noisy, many-opinioned man is worse than someone who is simply ignorant, because the ignorant man at least does not mislead. The verse is best read as a warning to examine these patterns in oneself, not as license to despise a neighbor: the danger is in being the unteachable windbag, not in pointing at one.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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