Satire, the emptiness of mere argument
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लटिक्याचें आंवतणें जेविलिया साच । काय त्या विश्वास तो चि खरा ॥1॥
कोल्हांटिणी लागे आकाशीं खेळत । ते काय पावत अमरपद ॥ध्रु.॥
जळमंडपयाचे घोडे राउत नाचती । ते काय तडवती युद्धालागीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तैसें मतवादीयांचें जिणें। दिसे लाजिरवाणें बोलतां चि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If someone has truly feasted at a false invitation, will he trust that host again? An acrobat may perform tricks in the sky; does she thereby attain immortality? Wooden horses and riders dance at a water-festival; will they charge into a real battle? Says Tuka, such is the life of those who argue over doctrines. Even to speak of it is embarrassing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If a man has feasted at a false invitation, does he really trust that host? An acrobat tumbles through tricks in the sky; does she win the deathless state by it? Wooden horses and their riders dance at the water-festival; will they charge into a real battle? Tuka says: such is the life of those who argue over doctrines. Even to speak of it is shameful.
What it means
Tukaram lines up three pictures of effort that looks like the real thing but produces nothing. A feast you only imagined leaves you hungry; an acrobat's skyward stunts win applause but not immortality; festival horses that prance are useless when a true fight comes. Each image exposes performance mistaken for substance. He then turns the mirror on those who spend their lives debating doctrines, treating clever argument as if it were the goal. The warning is not contempt for thought but a caution against the pattern of substituting talk about God for the actual living of devotion.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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