Social criticism, the inversions of Kali
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ऐका कलीचें हें फळ । पुढें होइल ब्रह्मगोळ ॥1॥
चारी वर्ण अठरा याती । भोजन करिती एके पंक्ती ॥ध्रु.॥
पूजितीअसुरा रांडा । मद्य प्राशितील पेंढा ॥2॥
वामकवळ मार्जन । जन जाईल अधोपतन ॥3॥
तुका हरिभक्ति करी । शक्ति पाणी वाहे घरीं॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Hear the fruits of this Kali age; ahead lies cosmic dissolution. All four castes and eighteen communities will eat together at one table. They will worship demons and their women, and degenerate people will drink liquor. Eating with the left hand and other inversions of proper conduct will drag people into downfall. Says Tuka, the devotee of Hari will carry water and sweep the floor of his own home in service.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Hear the fruit of this Kali age; ahead lies cosmic dissolution. All four castes and eighteen communities will eat together at one table. They will worship demons and their women, and degenerate people will drink liquor. Eating with the left hand and other inversions of proper conduct will drag people down. Tuka says: the devotee of Hari carries water and sweeps the floor of his own home in service.
What it means
Tukaram reads the disorder of the Kali age as a slide toward ruin, listing the breakdown of the boundaries he knew: shared tables, worship turned toward demons, drinking, and reversals of conduct he counts as degradation. The list is a lament over a world losing its order, voiced in the categories of his time. He sets one image against all of it at the end: while others chase inversion, the devotee of Hari quietly carries water and sweeps his own floor. The contrast lands the claim that humble service, not show or transgression, is the steady ground when everything else is coming apart.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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