Social criticism, selling the sacred
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गायत्री विकोन पोट जे जािळती । तया होय गति यमलोकीं ॥1॥
कन्येचा जे नर करिती विकरा । ते जाती अघोरा नरकपाता ॥ध्रु.॥
नाम गाऊनियां द्रव्य जे मागती । नेणों तयां गति कैसी होय ॥2॥
आमुचा सांगाती आहे तो श्रीहरि । न लगे दुराचारी तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Those who sell the Gayatri mantra to fill their bellies will find their destination in Yama's realm. Those who sell their daughters for a price will fall into the worst of hells. Those who sing the Name of God and then beg for money: I cannot imagine what fate awaits them. Says Tuka, our companion is Hari Himself; there is no need for the company of the corrupt.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those who sell the Gayatri to fill their bellies end up in Yama's realm. Men who sell their daughters for a price fall into the worst of hells. Those who sing God's Name and then beg for money: I cannot say what fate awaits them. Tuka says: our companion is Hari himself. We have no need of the company of the corrupt.
What it means
Tukaram names three ways of turning the holy into a transaction: trading the sacred Gayatri mantra for a living, selling a daughter for money, and singing the divine Name only to beg coins afterward. Each makes the sacred a means to greed, and he marks where that leads, into suffering and the lowest hells. The sin he attacks is the buying and selling itself, the reduction of God to a tool for the belly. His own answer closes the poem cleanly: Hari is his companion, so he simply has no need to keep company with those who have made devotion a trade.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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