Metaphor, why the wicked hate counsel
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आवडे सकळां मिष्टान्न । रोग्या विषा त्यासमान॥1॥
दर्पण नावडे तया एका । ठाव नाहीं ज्याच्या नाका ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तैशा खळा । उपदेशाचा कांटाळा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Everyone loves fine food, but to a sick person it is the same as poison. The mirror is hated only by the one whose nose is missing. Says Tuka, in the same way, the wicked despise spiritual instruction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Everyone loves sweet, fine food, but to a sick person it is the same as poison. Only one man hates the mirror: the one who has no nose. Tuka says: in just this way, the wicked cannot stand spiritual instruction.
What it means
Tukaram explains why good counsel meets such hatred in some people, and the fault is in the receiver, not the counsel. Rich food is loved by all, yet to the sick it acts like poison; the only one who hates a mirror is the man whose face it would expose. By these images he shows that wholesome things are rejected by those whose own condition cannot bear them. So when the wicked recoil from spiritual instruction, it is because the teaching, like the mirror, shows them what they would rather not see. The poem turns the listener toward self-examination: aversion to good counsel may be a symptom of one's own disorder.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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