Social criticism, the counterfeit holy
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
फटकाळ देव्हारा फटकाळ अंगारा । फटकाळ विचारा चालविलें ॥1॥
फटकाळ तो देव फटकाळ तो भक्त । करवितो घात आणिका जीवा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अवघें फटकाळ हें जन । अनुभविये खूण जाणतील ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A sham shrine and sham sacred ash, a sham philosophy carried forward. A sham god and a sham devotee bring ruin upon other lives. Says Tuka, all this world is full of sham; only those with true experience will recognize the mark.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A sham shrine, sham sacred ash, a sham teaching carried along. A sham god, a sham devotee: he brings ruin on other lives. Tuka says: this whole crowd is sham. Only those who have the real experience will know the mark.
What it means
Tukaram strips the costume off counterfeit religion. He runs down the props of false piety, the showy shrine, the smeared ash, the borrowed doctrine passed from mouth to mouth, and calls every one of them hollow. His sharpest words fall on the fake holy man: a sham god and a sham devotee do not merely deceive themselves, they drag other lives to ruin. The warning is not contempt for any one person but a test for the reader: when so much around us is performance, only firsthand experience of God, not the outward signs, can tell the true from the false, and that test begins with one's own practice.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
More in this theme →