Social criticism, the false devotee
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संत मागे पाणी नेदी एक चूळ । दासीस आंघोळ ठेवी पाणी ॥1॥
संतासी देखोनी होय पाठमोरा । दासीचिया पोरा चुंबन देतो ॥ध्रु.॥
संतासी देखोनि करितो ढवाळ्या । भावें धुतो चोळ्या दासीचिया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे त्याच्या तोंडावरी थुंका । जातो यमलोका भोगावया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When a saint asks for water, this man will not give even a sip. But for his mistress he stores water for her bath. Seeing a saint, he turns his back, but he kisses the children of his maidservant. Seeing a saint, he makes excuses, yet he lovingly washes the feet of his mistress. Says Tuka, spit upon the face of such a one. He is bound for Yama's realm of punishment.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When a saint asks for water, this man will not give one sip. But for his mistress he keeps water ready for her bath. Seeing a saint, he turns his back. He kisses the children of his maidservant. Seeing a saint, he makes excuses; but he lovingly washes his mistress's feet. Tuka says: spit on the face of such a one. He is going to Yama's realm to suffer.
What it means
Tukaram sets two devotions side by side to expose a man whose worship goes entirely to his appetites. The saint who comes to his door gets nothing, not even a sip of water, while his mistress gets her bath drawn and her feet washed with tenderness, and her servant's children get his kisses. The point is not the woman but the inversion: every honor owed to the holy is spent instead on lust. Tukaram's harsh line, spit on him, is aimed at this pattern of turning one's back on the sacred while lavishing reverence on indulgence. He warns that such a life ends in Yama's hall of punishment, where the reckoning falls due.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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