Social criticism, a base nature stays base
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय वृंदावन मोहियेलें गुळें । काय जिरें काळें उपचारिलें ॥1॥
तैसी अधमाची जाती च अधम । उपदेश श्रम करावा तो ॥ध्रु.॥
न कळे विंचासी कुरवािळलें अंग । आपले ते रंग दावीतसे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नये पाकासी दगड । शूकरासी गोड जैसी विष्ठा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Has the sacred basil plant been won over with sweetness? Has the bitter cumin been tamed by tender care? Just so, a lowborn nature remains low; all instruction lavished upon it is wasted labor. The scorpion does not understand your caresses; it only shows its own colors. Says Tuka, you cannot cook a stone; the pig delights only in filth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Has the basil plant ever been won over with sweetness? Has the bitter cumin been cured by gentle treatment? In the same way, a base nature stays base; the effort of instructing it is only wasted labor. The scorpion does not know your stroking of its body; it just shows its own colors. Tuka says: a stone will not turn into cooked food, and to the pig, dung is sweet.
What it means
Tukaram is being blunt about how little outward kindness changes a hardened, base disposition. His images all make one point: you cannot sweeten what is bitter by nature, you cannot pet a scorpion into gentleness, you cannot cook a stone soft, and a pig will relish filth no matter what you offer it. So teaching and care lavished on a person set in a low pattern can be wasted effort. The sting is aimed at the pattern itself, the fixed appetite that turns every kindness back into its own ugliness, and at the honest question of whether the instruction can land at all, rather than at writing anyone off as worthless.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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