Social criticism, the dancing hypocrites
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय तीं करावीं मोलाचीं माकडें । नाचत ती पुढें संसाराच्या ॥1॥
झाडा देतेवेळे विचकिती दांत । घेती यमदूत दंडवरी ॥ध्रु.॥
हात दांत कान हलविती मान । दाखविती जन मानावया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे किती जालीं हीं फजित । मागें नाहीं नीत भारवाही ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What use are these precious monkeys, dancing before the world? When the time of reckoning comes, they bare their teeth, and the messengers of death seize them with rods. They shake their hands, teeth, ears, and heads to impress the people. Says Tuka, how long will they endure this disgrace, for they have no righteousness to carry them forward.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What use are these hired monkeys, dancing before the world? When the reckoning comes, they bare their teeth, and the messengers of death seize them with rods. They wave their hands, gnash their teeth, wag their ears, and shake their heads, all to impress the people. Tuka says: how long will they bear this disgrace? Behind them there is no righteousness to carry them through.
What it means
Tukaram is naming a pattern, not a person. The performer who plays to the crowd is like a trained monkey, all motion meant to win applause: gestures, grimaces, a show. The point lands at the reckoning, when death's agents come, because the performance was never backed by any inner righteousness, and a show cannot stand in for a life. The display that impresses people here buys nothing for what comes after. The poem asks each of us to look at how much of our own piety is performance for an audience.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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