Social criticism, selling the sacred
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
त्या हरिदासांची भेटी घेतां । नकान उभयतासी जातां॥1॥
माते परीस थोरी कथा । भाड घेतां न लाजे ॥ध्रु.॥
देतां घेतां नरकवासी । उभयतांसी रवरव ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नरकगांवा । जाती हांवा धरोनि ॥3॥
देव गावा ध्यावा ऐसें जालें । परदेशी नाहीं उगलें ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Those who take payment to grant audiences with saints send both parties to hell. Greater than a mother is the sacred discourse, yet they are not ashamed to charge a fee. Both giver and taker become dwellers in hell, suffering in the pit of torment. Says Tuka, they rush eagerly toward the city of hell.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those who take a fee to grant a meeting with the saints send both sides to hell. Greater than a mother is the holy telling, yet they are not ashamed to charge for it. Both the giver and the taker become dwellers in hell; both fall into the screaming pit. Tuka says: they go to the town of hell, and they run there eagerly. It has come to this, that God must be sung and meditated on, yet the stranger is not left alone.
What it means
Tukaram is attacking the traffic in holy things, not the things themselves. He says the discourse of God is greater than a mother, and so charging money to arrange a meeting with the saints debases what should be freely given. The verdict falls on both parties, the one who takes the fee and the one who pays it, because both have agreed to price the priceless. His image of the screaming pit is severe, but the target is the transaction. The self-examination is to ask whether we have learned to put a gate and a fee around what God meant to be open.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
More in this theme →