Social criticism, learning sold for gain
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
खिस्तीचा उदीम ब्राह्मण कलयुगीं । महारवाडीं मांगीं हिंडतसे ॥1॥
वेवसाव करितां पर्वत मांगासी । ते पैं विटाळासी न मनिती ॥ध्रु.॥
मांगिणीशीं नित्य करीतसे लेखा । तोंडावरि थुंका पडतसे ॥2॥
आशा माया रांडा नांव हें कागदीं । आठवीना कधीं नारायण ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे देह जालें पराधीन । पांडुरंगाविण गति नाहीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In this age, Brahmins have taken up the trade of moneylending. They roam through the lowest quarters without scruple. When doing business, they do not consider the defilement of dealing with anyone and everyone. They keep daily accounts with all sorts of people, bringing shame upon their own faces. They remember only the names of greed and worldly entanglement, never once recalling Narayana. Says Tuka, the body has become enslaved. Without Panduranga, there is no salvation.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In this age the Brahmin has taken up the moneylender's trade. He roams through the poorest quarters after his profit. Doing business, he counts no one too low to deal with, no defilement worth minding. Day after day he keeps his accounts with all sorts, and shame falls on his own face. Greed and worldly tangle, these are the names written on his page; Narayana he never once recalls. Tuka says: the body has become a slave. Without Panduranga there is no way out.
What it means
Tukaram attacks a pattern, not a class: the man entrusted with sacred learning who has turned it into a hunt for profit. The bite of the poem is in the hypocrisy, since the one who fusses most about purity will set every scruple aside the moment money is in view, and so brings shame on himself by his own standards. What he records each day is greed and entanglement; the one name worth writing, Narayana, never appears in his accounts. The verse turns the satire into a warning for any reader: appetite makes the body a slave, and the only release from that bondage is Panduranga. The mirror it holds up asks whose ledger we are really keeping.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
More in this theme →