Social criticism, devotion bent toward gain
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भजन घाली भोगावरी । अकर्तव्य मनीं धरी ॥१॥
धिग त्याचें साधुपण । विटाळूनी वर्ते मन ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं वैराग्याचा लेश । अर्थचाड जावें आस ॥२॥
हें ना तें सें जालें । तुका म्हणे वांयां गेलें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who uses devotion merely for worldly enjoyment, harboring improper desires in the mind: shame on such saintliness. The mind moves steeped in impurity, without even a trace of dispassion, driven only by greed for wealth. Says Tuka, being neither this nor that, it has all gone to waste.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A man who turns his worship toward enjoyment, who holds forbidden desires in his mind: shame on his saintliness. His mind moves about defiled. There is not a trace of dispassion in him, only craving for wealth and the hope of getting it. He has become neither this nor that. Tuka says: it has all gone to waste.
What it means
Tukaram exposes a religion practiced as a means to pleasure and gain. The man performs his bhajan, but he aims it at enjoyment and keeps improper longings alive in his mind, so the holiness he wears is shameful. There is no vairagya, no detachment, in him at all; what drives him is greed for wealth and the appetite to acquire. The killing phrase is that he ends up neither this nor that, neither a true worldly man nor a true renunciate, falling between both. The wreck is total: such a life, the poem says, goes wholly to waste, and the listener is left to check his own motive in worship.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
More in this theme →