Metaphor, teaching wasted on the fool
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रोगिया मिष्टान्न मर्कटा चंदन । कागासी लेपन कर्पूराचें ॥1॥
निर्नासिका जैसा नावडे आरिसा । मूर्खालागीं तैसा शास्त्रबोध ॥ध्रु.॥
दास तुका ह्मणे विठ्ठलउदारें । अज्ञानअंधारें दूरी केलें ॥2॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Rich food is wasted on a sick man, sandalwood on a monkey, and a camphor paste on a crow. A mirror is hateful to one who has lost his nose; so too is scriptural teaching to a fool. Says Tuka, the generous Vitthal has driven away the darkness of ignorance.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Rich food is wasted on a sick man. Sandalwood is wasted on a monkey. Camphor paste is wasted on a crow. A mirror is hateful to a man who has lost his nose. So is scriptural teaching to a fool. Tuka, the servant, says: the generous Vitthal has driven away the darkness of ignorance.
What it means
Tukaram piles up images of good things offered to those who cannot use them, ending with the sharpest one: a mirror hated by the man with no nose, because it only shows him what he lacks. To the fool, scripture is the same; its teaching only irritates, since he has no eye to receive it. The point is aimed at a pattern, the closed mind that resents the very thing that could free it, not at sneering. Tukaram then turns it on himself in gratitude: he was that darkness, and the generous Vitthal drove it away.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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