Social criticism, forgetting the Lord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
राउळासी जातां त्रास मानी मोठा । बैसतो चोहोटां आदरेशीं ॥1॥
न करी स्नान संध्या ह्मणे रामराम । गुरुगुडीचे प्रेम अहनिनशी ॥ध्रु.॥
देवाब्राह्मणासी जाईना शरण । दासीचे चरण वंदी भावें ॥2॥
सुगंध चंदन सांडोनियां माशी । बसे दुगपधीशीं अतिआदरें॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे अरे ऐक भाग्यहीना । कां रे रामराणा विसरसी ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Going to the temple feels like a great burden to him, but he sits at the crossroads with eager relish. He does not bathe, does not pray, does not say Rama's name, yet he is devoted to his tobacco pipe day and night. He will not bow to God or to the brahmin, yet he worships at the feet of a maidservant. He abandons fragrant sandalwood and sits in stinking filth with great reverence. Says Tuka, listen, O unfortunate one: why do you forget the Lord Rama?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Going to the temple feels like a great burden to him, but he sits at the crossroads with eager pleasure. He does not bathe, keeps no prayers, never says Rama Rama, yet he loves his tobacco pipe day and night. He will not bow to God or to the brahmin, yet he reverently honors a servant-girl's feet. He leaves fragrant sandal and sits in stinking filth with great care. Tuka says: listen, you unlucky man, why do you forget Rama, the Lord?
What it means
Tukaram draws a man who finds every holy thing tiresome and every empty thing delightful. The temple is a chore, but loitering at the crossroads is a pleasure; prayer and the Name are skipped, but the pipe is loved all day; he withholds his bow from God and gives his reverence to the wrong feet; he turns from sandalwood toward filth. The poem stacks these reversed choices to show a life with its loves exactly inverted. The closing is not scorn but a plea: he calls the man unlucky, bhagyahina, and asks the real question underneath all of it, why do you keep forgetting Rama? The forgetting is the loss being mourned.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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