Complaint, the holy man who is a fraud
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बरा शिरविला । फाटक्यामध्यें पाव ॥1॥
कांहीं तरी विचारिलें । पाप पुण्य ऐसें केलें ।
भुरळें घातलें । एकाएकीं भावासी ॥ध्रु.॥
मुद्राधारणें माळ माळा टिळे । बोल रसाळ कोंवळे ।
हातीं फांशाचे गुंडाळे । कोण चाळे गृहस्था हे ॥2 ॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे मििस्कन । करितोसी देखोन ।
पाहा दुरिवरी वििच्छन्न । केला परी संसार ॥3॥
नाहीं घटिका ह्मणसी । लाग लागला तुजपाशीं ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A fine trick: You have slipped a thorn into the midst of the torn cloth. Did You even consider what You were doing, mixing merit and sin like this? You cast a spell upon my brother all at once. Ritual marks, garlands, forehead-paste, and sweet, tender words; yet the hands hold coils of deceit. What kind of trick is this to play upon a householder? Says Tukya-bandhu, You sit there smirking. Look at the ruin You have caused; You have torn apart the household. You say there is not a moment to spare, yet it is You who have attached Yourself to him.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A fine trick. You have slipped a thorn into the torn cloth. Did You even think what You were doing, mixing merit and sin like this? You cast a spell on my brother all at once. Ritual marks, garlands, forehead paste, sweet and tender words. Yet the hands hold coils of deceit. What kind of trick is this to play on a householder? Tukya-bandhu says: You sit there smirking. Look at the ruin You have caused. You have torn the household apart. You say there is not a moment to spare, yet it is You who have fastened Yourself onto him.
What it means
The poem accuses God of working His way into a settled household under a holy disguise and wrecking it. The outward signs of piety, the marks, the garland, the soft pious words, sit on top of hands full of deceit; the devotion that pulled the brother in looks, from the family's side, like a con. Kanhoba points at the gap between the sacred costume and the upheaval it caused: a working householder has been hollowed out and God only smirks. Read against oneself, it is a warning about a piety that is all marks and tender talk while real obligations collapse. The bitterness is the bitterness of love betrayed, not of unbelief.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →