Satire, the taste for filth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शूकरासी विष्ठा माने सावकास । मिष्टान्नाची त्यास काय गोडी ॥1॥
तेवीं अभक्तांसी आवडे पाखांड । न लगे त्यां गोड परमार्थ ॥ध्रु.॥
श्वानासी भोजन दिलें पंचामृत । तरी त्याचें चित्त हाडावरि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सर्पा पाजिलिया क्षीर । वमितां विखार विष जालें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A pig finds comfort in filth; what taste can it have for fine food? In the same way, those without devotion love hypocrisy; genuine spiritual truth holds no appeal for them. If a dog is fed a feast of the five nectars, its heart still craves a bone. Says Tuka, if a serpent is fed milk, when it vomits, it produces only poison.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A pig is content with dung; what sweetness can rich food hold for it? In the same way, the one without devotion loves falsehood. Real spiritual truth has no taste for him. Feed a dog a banquet of the five nectars, and its heart still runs to a bone. Tuka says: pour milk into a serpent, and when it spits it out, it has turned to poison.
What it means
Tukaram is naming a pattern, not condemning a soul: appetite decides what you can receive. Just as a pig prefers filth to fine food and a dog leaves a feast for a bone, a heart with no devotion is drawn to hypocrisy and finds genuine truth tasteless. The serpent image goes further: feed it pure milk and it returns only venom, because the poison is inside, not in the food. The challenge is to examine your own taste. If real teaching seems flat to you while falsehood appeals, the lack is in what you have made yourself crave, and that craving has to change before the truth can ever be sweet.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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