Social criticism, the hollow show
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कुंकवाची ठेवाठेवी । बोडकादेवी काशाला ॥1॥
दिवस गमा भरा पोट । कां गे नेटनेटावा ॥ध्रु.॥
दिमाख हा कोणां दावा । लटकी जीवा चरफड ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे झोंडगीं हो । काुंफ्दा कां हो कोरडी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why store vermillion when you have a shaven head, O widowed goddess? Just pass the day, fill your belly; why make such a fuss? Whom are you showing off to? This agitation of the jiva is pointless. Says Tuka, just become a ragpicker; why cry dry tears?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why store away vermillion when your head is shaven, widowed one? Just pass the day and fill your belly; why all this fuss over looking proper? Whom is this display for? This burning of the heart is false. Tuka says: just become a ragpicker; why weep dry tears?
What it means
Tukaram is exposing a show kept up after its meaning is gone. He pictures a widow who hoards the vermillion she can no longer wear, fretting over an appearance that fits nothing in her life, and he asks the blunt question of whom the display is even for. The agitation, he says, is hollow, a heat with no real fire under it. His harshness, telling her to drop the pretense and simply live, is aimed at the empty performance, not at her grief. The mirror for any listener is the fuss we keep up for an audience over things that have already lost their place.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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