Indignation, defending God's devotees
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ह्मणे विठ्ठल पाषाण । त्याच्या तोंडावरि वाहाण॥1॥
नको नको दर्शन त्याचें । गलितकुष्ट भरो वाचे ॥ध्रु.॥
शािळग्रामासि ह्मणे धोंडा । कोड पडो त्याच्या तोंडा ॥2॥
भावी सद्गु मनुष्य । त्याचें खंडो का आयुष्य ॥3॥
हरिभक्ताच्या करी चेष्टा । त्याचे तोंडीं पडो विष्ठा ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे किती ऐकों । कोठवरी मर्यादा राखों ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who calls Vitthal a mere stone deserves a shoe across his face. May I never see the face of such a person; may his mouth rot with leprosy. He who calls the Shaligrama a rock, may sores cover his mouth. He who considers the true Guru a mere mortal, may his life be cut short. He who mocks the devotees of Hari, may filth fall upon his tongue. Says Tuka, how much more can I hear? How long can I endure such insults to the Lord?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whoever calls Vitthal a mere stone, a shoe belongs across his face. I do not want the sight of such a one; let his mouth fill with rotting sores. Whoever calls the Shaligram a rock, let sores break out on his mouth. Whoever takes the true Guru for an ordinary man, let his life be cut short. Whoever mocks the devotees of Hari, let filth fall on his tongue. Tuka says: how much am I to hear? How long am I to keep my patience?
What it means
This is one of Tukaram's fiercest poems, and it is the cry of a man whose limit has been reached by those who jeer at God, the sacred image, the Guru, and the devotees. The curses are violent on the surface, but the target is a pattern of speech: the habit of reducing the holy to dead stone and mocking those who love it. The honest way to read it is to feel the heat as the measure of his devotion rather than as a sentence on any soul; the final lines, asking how much he can bear and how long he can hold his patience, show a man at the edge, not a man dispensing judgments calmly. It is a warning against the contempt in oneself, the easy sneer that empties the sacred of meaning, more than a wish of harm on a neighbor. The stakes Tuka names are how much insult to the Lord a lover of God can stand to hear.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →