Satire, the slanderer as washerman
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निंदक तो परउपकारी । काय वणूप त्याची थोरी । जे रजकाहुनि भले परि । सर्व गुणें आगळा ॥1॥
नेघे मोल धुतो फुका। पाप वरच्यावरि देखा । करी साधका । शुद्ध सरते तिहीं लोकीं ॥ध्रु.॥
मुखसंवदणी सांगते । अवघें सांटविलें तेथें । जिव्हा साबण निरुतें । दोष काढी जन्माचे ॥2॥
तया ठाव यमपुरीं । वास करणें अघोरीं । त्यासी दंडण करी । तुका ह्मणे न्हाणी ते ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The slanderer is truly a selfless benefactor. How can I describe his greatness? He is even better than a washerman in every way. He charges no fee but washes away our sins for free. Just look: he takes our faults upon himself. His tongue is the soap that scrubs out the stains of lifetimes. What is stored in his gossip-laden mouth cleanses everything. Says Tuka, his dwelling is in Yama's city, where terrible suffering awaits. Yet that very suffering of his is what cleanses us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The slanderer is truly a benefactor to others. How can I describe his greatness? He is even better than a washerman, finer in every quality. He takes no fee; he washes for free. Look how he takes our sins onto himself. His tongue is the soap that scrubs out the stains of many lifetimes. Everything stored up in his gossiping mouth cleanses us. Tuka says: his place is in Yama's city, his dwelling in that terrible suffering; that very suffering of his is the bath that washes us clean.
What it means
Tukaram turns slander on its head with a mock-praise: the very man who runs you down is doing you a service. A washerman charges a fee, but the slanderer cleans you for nothing, scrubbing away the faults of lifetimes with the soap of his own tongue. The dark turn is that he pays the bill himself, because the man who lives on others' faults earns the suffering of Yama's hell, and that suffering of his is what leaves the slandered one washed clean. The point for self-examination is to stop fearing or resenting the one who criticizes you; his words wear away your defects, and the harm of the habit falls on the one who indulges it, not on you.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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