Social criticism, the ingrate exposed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दोराच्या आधारें पर्वत चढला । पाउलासाटीं केला अपघात ॥1॥
अष्टोत्तरदशें व्याधि ज्य वैद्यें दवडुनी । तो वैद्य मारूनि उत्तीर्ण जाला ॥ध्रु.॥
नव मास माया वाइलें उदरीं । ते माता चौबारीं नग्न केली ॥2॥
गायत्रीचें क्षीर पिळुनी घेऊनी । उपवासी बांधोनी ताडन करी ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे दासां निंदी त्याचें तोंड । पहातां नरककुंड पूर्वजांसी ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He climbed the mountain by the support of a rope, only to fall to his ruin for the sake of one step. A physician who cured a hundred and eighteen ailments killed the very doctor and declared himself healed. The mother who carried him nine months in her womb was stripped naked by him in public. He squeezes the milk of the Gayatri and then binds her to a fast and beats her. Says Tuka, one who slanders the servants of God must look upon the hell that awaits his ancestors.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He climbed the mountain by the help of a rope, then took one careless step and fell to his ruin. A physician cured him of a hundred and eighteen diseases, and he killed that physician and called the debt repaid. The mother who carried him nine months in her womb, he stripped naked in the public square. He squeezed out the milk of the Gayatri, then bound her to a fast and beat her. Tuka says: look at the mouth that slanders God's servants. A pit of hell waits for his ancestors.
What it means
Tukaram strings together images of monstrous ingratitude to expose the man who betrays everyone who has helped him. The one saved by a rope grows careless and falls; the one cured of every illness murders his healer; the one carried in the womb shames his own mother in public; the one nourished by the sacred Gayatri starves and beats her. Each picture is the same pattern: turning on the very source of your life and rescue. He lands it on the person who slanders the devotees of God, naming that tongue as the worst of these betrayals, so foul that ruin falls even on the line behind him. The warning is aimed at the betraying pattern itself, a mirror to check in oneself.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
More in this theme →