Social criticism, the fawning, stingy man
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नागलें देखोनि चांगलें बोले । आपुलें वेचूनि त्याजपुढें खुले ॥1॥
अधमाचे ओंगळ गुण । उचित नेणें तो धर्म कोण॥ध्रु.॥
आर्तभूता न घली पाण्याचा चुळ । न मागे त्यासी घाली साखर गुळ ॥2॥
एकासी आड पडोनि होंकरी । एकासी देखोनि लपवी भाकरी ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे ते गाढवपशु । लाभेंविण केला आयुष्यनाशु॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Seeing a well-dressed person, the base man speaks sweetly and opens his purse before him. Yet the vile one's habits are ugly; he knows neither propriety nor dharma. He will not offer even a sip of water to one in need, but will heap sugar and jaggery before one who never asked. He blocks one person rudely while hiding his bread from another. Says Tuka, such people are mere donkeys; without true gain, they have wasted their entire lives.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Seeing a well-dressed man, the base fellow speaks sweetly and opens his purse before him. The vile one's habits are ugly. He knows neither what is fitting nor what dharma is. He will not pour even a sip of water for one in need, but heaps sugar and jaggery before one who never asked. He blocks one person rudely, and hides his bread when he sees another. Tuka says: such people are mere donkeys, beasts; without any true gain they have wasted their whole lives.
What it means
Tukaram exposes the man whose generosity follows status, not need. He fawns on the well-dressed and opens his purse to them, while refusing a sip of water to someone who is genuinely suffering and lavishing sweets on those who never asked. He rebuffs one person and hides his food from another; his giving is all calculation and show, with no sense of what is fitting or of dharma. Tukaram calls such a life that of a beast, and says its whole length has been spent without earning anything real. The poem points at the pattern of serving power and ignoring need, and asks us to weigh which way our own giving leans.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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