Social criticism, the proud man's rot
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोडियाचें गोरेपण । तैसें अहंकारीज्ञान ॥1॥
त्यासि अंतरीं रिझे कोण । जवळी जातां चिळसवाण ॥ध्रु.॥
प्रेतदेह गौरविलें। तैसें विटंबवाणें जालें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे खाणें विष्ठा । तैशा देहबुिद्धचेष्टा॥3॥
पाया जाला नारू । तेथें बांधला कापूरु ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The fairness of a leper is only skin-deep; just so is the knowledge of the egotist. Who in their chitta is pleased with him? Coming close, one feels only revulsion. Adorning a corpse does not lend it dignity; it only becomes more grotesque. Says Tuka, eating filth is what the body-bound intellect amounts to.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A leper's fair skin is only on the surface. The knowledge of a proud man is just like that. Who is pleased with him at heart? Go near him and you feel only disgust. Dress up a corpse and it gains no dignity; it only grows more grotesque. Tuka says: the schemes of a body-bound mind are like eating filth. A sore opens on the foot, and there they bind camphor over it.
What it means
Tukaram attacks the hollowness of learning carried by an egotist. Knowledge worn for show is like the fair skin of a diseased man: pleasant only at first glance, repellent once you come close. Decorating it is as futile as dressing a corpse, which only makes the ruin more obvious. The harshness aims at the pattern, not at any person's worth: when the mind is bound to the body and to pride, even its cleverness is foul, like binding fragrant camphor over a festering sore. The poem asks the listener to check whether their own learning serves truth or only feeds the ego.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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