Social criticism, the false devotee
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संत देखोनियां स्वयें दृष्टी टाळी । आदरें न्याहाळी परस्त्रीसी ॥1॥
वीट ये कर्णासी संतवाक्यामृता । स्त्रीशब्द ऐकतां निवे कर्ण ॥ध्रु.॥
कथेमाजी निज वाटे नित्यक्षणीं । िस्त्रयेचे कीर्त्तनीं प्रेमें जागे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुह्मी क्रोधासी न यावें । स्वभावा करावें काय कोणीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
At the sight of a saint, he averts his eyes, yet he gazes adoringly at another man's wife. The nectar of saints' words grates on his ears, but when a woman speaks, his ears are soothed. He falls asleep every moment during a sacred discourse, yet at the performance of a woman, he is wide awake with passion. Says Tuka, do not be angry with such people. What can anyone do about their nature?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When he sees a saint, he turns his eyes away. But he stares with longing at another man's wife. The nectar of a saint's words sickens his ears. When a woman speaks, his ears are soothed. During the sacred discourse he dozes off every moment. At a woman's performance he is wide awake with passion. Tuka says: do not be angry with such people. What can anyone do about their nature?
What it means
Tukaram holds up a portrait of a man whose appetites have flipped the holy and the profane. Everything that should draw him, the saint, the saint's words, the sacred story, repels him; everything that should not hold him, another's wife, her voice, her dancing, wakes him fully. The poem names the pattern without softening it: the man is not asleep by accident, he is asleep only to what is good. Then Tukaram turns the blade back: do not waste anger on him, ask instead what a person's own nature is doing. The closing line is an examination of how the heart bends, not a license to despise the man caught in the bending.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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