Social criticism, the inverted heart
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सोइयासी करी पाहुणेर बरा । कांडितो ठोंबरा संता साटीं ॥1॥
गाईसी देखोनी बदबदा मारी । घोडएाची चाकरी गोड वाटे ॥ध्रु.॥
पान फुल नेतो वेश्येसी उदंड । ब्राह्मणासी खांड देऊं नेदी ॥2॥
पर्वकाळीं धर्म न करी नासरी । वेची राजद्वारीं उदंड चि॥3॥
कीर्त्तना जावया होतसे हींपुष्टी । खेळतो सोंकटीं रात्रंदिवस॥4॥
बाइलेच्या गोता आवडीनें पोसी । मातापितियासाी दवडितो ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याच्या थुंका तोंडावरी । जातो यमपुरी भोगावया ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He feasts his friends lavishly but pounds bitter herbs for the saints. He scolds and beats the cow on sight but delights in grooming horses. He brings garlands and flowers in abundance to the courtesan but will not give a bit of sugar to a Brahmin. He makes no charitable gifts on holy days but spends freely at the royal court. He is too lazy to attend kirtan but gambles day and night. He lovingly supports his wife's relatives but drives away his own mother and father. Says Tuka, spit upon his face. He is headed for the realm of Yama.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He feasts his friends well but pounds bitter herbs for the saints. He beats the cow the moment he sees it, yet grooming horses feels sweet to him. He carries garlands and flowers in plenty to the courtesan, but will not give a sliver of sugar to a Brahmin. On holy days he does no charity, but at the king's door he spends freely. He is too lazy to go to kirtan, yet he gambles night and day. He gladly feeds his wife's relatives but drives his own mother and father away. Tuka says: spit on his face. He is going to the city of Yama to suffer.
What it means
Tukaram lays out a man whose every choice is exactly backward, and the pattern is the point. In each pair he lavishes care where it flatters his appetites, friends, fine horses, the courtesan, the royal court, gambling, his wife's people, and withholds it where it would cost him without reward, the saints, the cow, the Brahmin, holy-day charity, kirtan, his own parents. The harsh closing line, spit on his face, is aimed at this inverted ordering of love, not at contempt for a soul: each of us can ask where our own generosity actually flows. The warning that he is bound for Yama's city names the stake, that a heart spent entirely on self-interest reaps its own suffering.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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