Social criticism, the man who is no man
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्ति ज्याची थोडी । पूर्ण विषयांची गोडी ॥1॥
तो नर चि नव्हे पाहीं । खर जाणावा तो देहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
भजन पूजन ही नेणे । काय स्वरूपासी जाणे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याला । भोवंडून बाहेर घाला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One whose devotion is meager and whose relish for sensory pleasures is full is no true human being. Know him to be a donkey in a human body. He knows neither worship nor prayer; how then can he know the Self? Says Tuka, spin him around and throw him out.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
His devotion is small. His relish for sense-pleasures is full. Look: he is no man at all. Know him to be a donkey in a human body. He does not know worship or prayer. How then would he know the Self? Tuka says: spin him around and throw him out.
What it means
Tukaram is taking the measure of a life and finding it empty. The person he draws is unbalanced in a precise way: almost no devotion, full appetite for the senses, and on that count he says the human shape is wasted, a beast wearing a man's body. The reason follows: someone who has never even taken up worship or prayer has no way to reach the Self at all. The harsh closing line is aimed at the pattern of a wholly self-indulgent, godless life, and read against oneself it is a warning: do not be the figure that gets spun around and put out.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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