Teaching, the honest physician
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हों वैद्य आह्मी अर्थाचे भुकेले । भलते द्यावे पाले भलत्यासी ॥1॥
कुपथ्य करूनि विटंबावे रोगी । का हे सलगी भीड त्याची ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लांसू फांसंू देऊं डाव । सुखाचा उपाव पुढें आहे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We are not physicians hungry for fees, prescribing random leaves to just anyone. Why ruin the patient with wrong remedies out of some false courtesy? Says Tuka, we may lance and probe and set painful traps, but the path to true comfort lies ahead.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We are not doctors hungry for a fee, handing any leaf to anyone. Why wreck the patient with the wrong cure out of soft politeness? Tuka says: we will lance and probe and set a painful trap. The way to real comfort lies ahead.
What it means
Tukaram defends hard, true teaching against flattery. A teacher chasing approval is like a quack who prescribes whatever pleases the patient and ruins him; Tukaram refuses that, because false courtesy that spares a person discomfort actually harms him. So he will do what a real physician does: cut, probe, and apply the painful remedy, even when it stings. The point to sit with is that ease bought by avoidance is not healing; the genuine comfort comes only after the hard treatment, on the far side of it, not in skipping it.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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