Social criticism, the puffed-up pretender
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
खद्योतें फुलविलें रविपुढें ढुंग । साक्षी तंव जग उभयतां ॥1॥
आपल्या आपण नाहीं शोभों येत । चार करी स्फीत दाखवूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
खाणार ताकाचें आसातें माजीरें । आपणें चि अधीर कळों येतें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जळो मैंदाची मवाळी । दावूनियां नळी कापी सुखें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The firefly puffs itself up before the sun, but the whole world witnesses both. One who is not worthy of shining on his own tries to impress by showing off to four people. A buttermilk drinker pretends to eat from a churning pot, but his own impatience gives him away. Says Tuka, cursed be the smooth ways of the deceiver, who shows his pipe and cuts at ease.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A firefly puffs itself up before the sun, but the whole world sees them both. One who cannot shine on his own tries to impress by showing off to a few onlookers. A man who only drinks buttermilk pretends he is eating from the churning pot, but his own impatience gives him away. Tuka says: cursed be the smooth manner of the cheat, who shows his pipe and slits the throat at ease.
What it means
Tukaram skewers the hollow boaster with three sharp pictures. The firefly that swells with pride before the sun fools no one, because everyone can see both at once; the show-off who has no real light of his own performs for a small audience instead. The buttermilk drinker who acts as if he were feasting betrays himself by his own restless impatience. The harshest image names the danger in false sweetness: the con man whose gentle manner is only a cover while he cuts at ease. Read against oneself, the poem warns against putting on a display that has nothing real behind it.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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