Social criticism, the empty teacher
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुखें सांगे भ्रमकथान । जन लोकाची कापितो मान॥1॥
असत्य सांगतो जनासी । नाहीं अनुभव आपणासी ॥ध्रु.॥
कथा करितो ज्ञानाची । अंतरीं आशा बहु लोभाची ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तो चि वेडा। त्याचें बहू उद्देश हाणावा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He speaks deluding stories from his mouth and nods along with the crowd. He tells falsehoods to the people, having no experience of his own. He discourses on knowledge while harboring greed and desire within. Says Tuka, such a man is truly mad; his pretensions deserve to be exposed.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
With his mouth he tells deluding tales. He is cutting the throats of the people. He tells the people what is not true, for he has no experience of his own. He gives discourses on knowledge, while inside him there is much craving and greed. Tuka says: that man is the real madman. His pretense should be thoroughly exposed.
What it means
Tukaram turns on the teacher who speaks of God without knowing God. The man preaches wisdom and lectures the crowd, but he has no inner experience to back it, so what he hands them is delusion, and Tukaram calls it a cutting of throats because false guidance ruins the people who trust it. Worse, the same mouth that talks of knowledge hides a heart full of greed. The poem names the pattern bluntly: such pretension should be unmasked. The warning is also a mirror, asking whether what we teach is something we have actually lived.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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