Social criticism, the brute who honors no one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तटाचे जातीला नाहीं भीड भार । लाता मारी थोर लाहान नेणे ॥1॥
परी तो त्या विशेष मानुष होऊन । करी खंड मान वडिलांचा ॥ध्रु.॥
बेरसा गाढव माया ना बहीण । भुंके चवीविण भलतें चि ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे बोकड मातलें । न विचारी आपुले तोंडीं मुते ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A man of a rude and aggressive nature knows no restraint; he kicks at the great and the small alike. Such a person forfeits his humanity and dishonors his elders. A tasteless donkey knows neither mother nor sister and brays without meaning. Says Tukya-bandhu, a goat drunk on its own mating season does not consider that it urinates upon its own mouth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A brute by nature carries no shame, no weight of respect. He kicks out at the great and the small alike. He has become a man, yet he tears down the honor of his elders. A tasteless donkey knows neither mother nor sister; it brays at anything, with no meaning. Tukya-bandhu says: a goat drunk on its rut does not even notice that it urinates on its own mouth.
What it means
Here the poem looks hard at the man who respects no one. Born human, he still kicks at high and low alike and strips the honor from those he should revere. The harsh animal images, the braying donkey that knows no kin, the rutting goat that fouls its own mouth without noticing, all point at one thing: a person so driven by his own impulses that he degrades himself and cannot see it. The warning is to examine that blind, honor-destroying drive in oneself, not to despise the man caught in it.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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