Social criticism, birth without devotion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुळसीवृंदावनीं उपजला कांदा । नावडे गोविंदा कांहीं केल्या ॥1॥
तैसे वंशामध्यें जाले जे मानव । जाणावे दानव अभक्त ते ॥ध्रु.॥
केवडएामधील निगपध कणसें । तैशीं तीं माणसें भक्तिहीन ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जेवीं वंदनांतिल आळी । न चढे निढळीं देवाचिया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If an onion sprouts in a tulsi garden, Govinda will never accept it, no matter what you do. Just so, those who are born into a good lineage but lack devotion should be known as demons. Like worthless husks growing amid fine grain, such are the people devoid of devotion. Says Tuka, just as a worm from a sandalwood tree cannot be placed upon the brow of the deity.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If an onion sprouts in a tulsi garden, Govinda will not accept it, no matter what you do. So too: those born into a good lineage who have no devotion, know them as demons, the unworthy. Like worthless husks growing among fine grain, such are the people without devotion. Tuka says: it is like a worm from the sandalwood tree; it cannot be set upon the deity's brow.
What it means
Tukaram is striking at the idea that good birth alone makes a person holy. He uses things that grow in a holy place yet remain useless: an onion in the tulsi garden, husks among the grain, a worm bred in sandalwood. Each one shares the location and even the soil of something sacred, but cannot be offered to God. The point turns on devotion, not lineage: without bhakti, a high birth is just an onion in the wrong bed. The harshness is aimed at the assumption that pedigree substitutes for love of God, and it asks the listener to check which one he is trusting in.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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