Metaphor, the harm of spite
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तेलनीशीं रुसला वेडा । रागें कोरडें खातो भिडा ॥१॥
आपुलें हित आपण पाही । संकोच तो न धरी कांहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
नावडे लोकां टाकिला गोहो । बोडिले डोकें सांडिला मोहो ॥२॥
शेजारणीच्या गेली रागें । कुत्र्यांनी घर भरिलें मागें ॥३॥
पिसारागें भाजिलें घर । नागविलें तें नेणे फार ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे वांच्या रागें । फेडिलें सावलें देखिलें जगें ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The fool sulks at the oil-seller woman and in his spite eats his food dry. Look to your own good; do not hold back out of false shame. Out of dislike for people she casts off her husband, shaves her head, and gives up all attachment; in a rage she runs off to the neighbour woman's house, and behind her the dogs fill the empty house. In a mad fit she burns down her own house and never sees how much she has lost. Says Tuka: acting out of spite, she has bared her own shame for the whole world to see.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The fool sulks at the oil-seller woman, and in his spite he eats his food dry. Look to your own good yourself; do not hold back out of false shame. Out of dislike for people, she throws away her husband, shaves her head, and casts off her ties. She storms off to the neighbor woman's house in a rage, and behind her the dogs fill the empty house. In a mad fit she burns her own house down, and never sees how much she has lost. Tuka says: acting out of spite, she bared her own shame for the whole world to see.
What it means
A string of comic vignettes about self-defeating anger. Each figure injures only himself: the man who, sulking at the oil-seller, eats his food dry rather than ask; the woman who in pique abandons husband and home, shaves her head, storms off, and lets the house go to the dogs and the fire. The thread running through them is the line in the middle: look to your own good, and do not let spite or false shame govern you. Anger, Tukaram shows, does not strike the one it is aimed at; it strips and exposes the angry person.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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