Social criticism, the misplaced devotee
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवाचिया वस्त्रा स्वप्नीं ही नाठवी । िस्त्रयेसी पाठवी उंच साडी ॥1॥
गाईचें पाळण नये चि विचारा । अश्वासी खरारा करी अंगें ॥ध्रु.॥
लेकराची रास स्वयें धांवें क्षाळूं ॥ न ह्मणे प्रक्षाळूं द्विजपायां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याच्या तोंडावरि थुंका । जातो यमलोका भोगावया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He never thinks of offering fine cloth to God, even in his dreams, but sends costly saris to his wife. He gives no thought to tending the cow, yet he curries his horse with his own hands. He rushes to wash his own child's leavings but will not wash the feet of a holy man. Says Tuka, spit upon the face of such a person; he goes straight to Yama's realm to suffer.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He never thinks of fine cloth for God, not even in a dream, but sends costly saris to his wife. He gives no thought to caring for the cow, yet he grooms his horse with his own hands. He runs to wash his own child's mess, but will not wash the feet of a holy man. Tuka says: spit on the face of such a person. He goes straight to Yama's realm to suffer.
What it means
Tukaram lines up a man's choices side by side and lets the contrast indict him. Lavish cloth for the wife but nothing for God; hands-on care for the horse but none for the sacred cow; eager service to his own child's filth but disgust at a holy man's feet. The pattern is the charge: his love and labor flow only toward what serves his own attachment, never toward the holy. The harsh closing is aimed at that inversion of values, the way a person can pour himself out for self-interest while withholding everything from God. Read it as a mirror, not a verdict on someone else.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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