Metaphor, the fault that calls the truth crooked
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दर्पणासी नखटें लाजे । शुद्ध खिजे देखोनि ॥1॥
ऐसें अवगुणांच्या बाधें । दिसे सुदें विपरीत ॥ध्रु.॥
अंधळ्यास काय हिरा । गारां चि तो सारिखा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भुंके सुनें । ठाया नेणे ठाव तो ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
An ugly person is offended by the mirror; seeing purity, the impure become angry. Such is the effect of faults: what is straight appears crooked. What use is a diamond to a blind person? To him it is just another pebble. Says Tuka, a dog barks without knowing who stands there.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The ugly one is shamed by the mirror; seeing what is pure, the impure grows angry. Such is the harm of faults: what is straight looks crooked. What use is a diamond to a blind man? To him it is just like a pebble. Tuka says: a dog barks, not knowing who stands there.
What it means
Tukaram explains why goodness so often draws hostility. A person carrying faults is like an ugly face shamed by a mirror, or an impure heart angered by the sight of purity; the defect in the seer makes the straight thing look bent. He adds that the blind cannot tell a diamond from a gravel stone, and a dog barks at whoever passes without knowing who it is. The figures all point the same way, and inward: the failure to recognize what is true and good lies in the flaw of the one looking, not in the thing seen.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →