Social criticism, the man without discipline
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नीत सांडोनि अवनीत चाले । भंडउभंड भलतें चि बोले ॥1॥
त्यांत कोणाचें काय बा गेलें । ज्याचें तेणें अनहित केलें ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्यासि वंदावें त्यासी निंदी । मैत्री सांडोनि होतसे दंदी॥2॥
आन यातीचे संगती लागे । संतसज्जनामध्यें ना वागे॥3॥
केल्याविण पराक्रम सांगे । जेथें सांगे तेथें चि भीक मागे ॥4॥
करी आपुला चि संभ्रम । परि पुढें कठीण फार यम ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे कांहीं नित्यनेम । चित्तीं न धरी तो अधम ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Abandoning what is right, he walks the path of wrong. He speaks recklessly without restraint. In this, whose loss is it? Each one has harmed only himself. He slanders those who deserve reverence and, forsaking friendship, picks quarrels. He keeps the company of lowly people but will not move among saints and good folk. He boasts of feats he never performed, yet begs at the very place he brags. He makes a great show of himself, but ahead lies the terrible reckoning of Yama. Says Tuka, he who holds no daily discipline in his chitta is truly the lowest of all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He drops what is right and walks the crooked way; he talks loosely, says whatever he likes. And whose loss is it? Each such man has only harmed himself. He slanders the one he ought to honor, and casting off friendship, he picks fights. He keeps the company of low people and will not move among saints and good folk. He brags of feats he never did, and he begs in the very place where he boasts. He makes a great show of himself, but ahead waits the hard reckoning of Yama. Tuka says: the man who holds no daily discipline in his heart is the lowest of all.
What it means
Tukaram draws a portrait of the undisciplined man and lets the consequences speak. The loose tongue, the slander of those worthy of respect, the picking of quarrels, the boasting that collapses into begging: each is a way of harming no one so much as himself. He chooses low company and shuns the saints whose nearness might have steadied him, so nothing in his life pulls upward. The poem aims at the pattern, not at any one person to despise: a life with no fixed practice held in the heart drifts, and Tuka names the hard reckoning that waits to call it the lowest state. The remedy is implied in the charge: keep some daily discipline, and keep the company that holds it.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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