Social criticism, the fault-finder's blind eye
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ते चि करीं मात । जेणें होइल तुझें हित ॥1॥
काय बडबड अमित । सुख जिव्हारीं सिणविसी ॥ध्रु.॥
जो मुळव्याधी पीडिला । त्यासी देखोन हांसे खरजुला ॥2॥
आराथकरी सोसी । त्यासि हांसे तो आळसी ॥3॥
क्षयरोगी ह्मणे परता । सर रोगिया तूं आतां ॥4॥
वडस दोहीं डोळां वाढले । आणिकां कानें कोंचें ह्मणे ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे लागों पायां । शुद्ध करा आपणियां ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Speak only of that which will serve your true welfare. Why do you exhaust yourself with endless chatter, tormenting your own chitta? A man afflicted with piles is laughed at by one who merely has an itch. The diligent worker is mocked by the lazy one. The one with consumption tells another patient to step aside. A man with growths on both eyes tells another that his ears stick out. Says Tuka, fall at the feet of the truth and purify yourselves.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Speak only of what will do you real good. Why wear yourself out with endless chatter, galling your own heart? The man sick with piles is laughed at by one who only has an itch. The hard worker is mocked by the lazy one. The man dying of consumption tells the other patient, step aside, you sick one. A man with growths over both eyes tells another his ears stick out. Tuka says: fall at the feet of truth and make yourselves clean.
What it means
Tukaram skewers the habit of pointing at everyone else's faults while ignoring one's own far worse condition. He first asks why a person tires himself out with idle talk that only torments his own heart. Then he stacks up sharp little portraits: the diseased mocking the slightly afflicted, the lazy mocking the diligent, the dying ordering another patient out of the way, the man blind with growths sneering at another's ears. Each shows a blindness to the larger flaw in oneself. The closing turn aims the whole thing inward: stop the mockery, bow at the feet of truth, and clean up your own life first.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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