Metaphor, the man no teaching reaches
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय नाहीं लवत झाडें । विसरे वेडें देहभाव ॥1॥
जया न फळे उपदेश । धस ऐसा त्या नांवें ॥ध्रु.॥
काय नाहीं असत जड । दगड तो अबोलणा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कुचर दाणा । तैसा ह्मणा डेंग हा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not trees also bow their branches? Does a lunatic not also forget body-consciousness? One upon whom no teaching has any effect: call such a one a blockhead. Are stones not also hard and inert? A stone too remains speechless. Says Tuka, a cracked grain is what such a swaggering fool is: call him that.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not trees also bow their branches? Does a madman not also forget the body? The one whom no teaching can ripen: call him by that name, a blockhead. Are stones not also hard and dumb? A stone too says nothing. Tuka says: he is like a hollow, cracked grain; call this swaggering fool exactly that.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing outward signs of holiness that have no inner reality. A tree bends its branches and a lunatic forgets his body too, but neither bowing nor self-forgetting proves anything by itself. The real test is whether teaching can take root and bear fruit in a person; the one in whom it never ripens is simply dull, hard and silent like a stone, however pious he looks. He compares such a swaggering man to a grain that is cracked and empty, looking like seed but unable to grow. The point is self-examination: ask whether the teaching is actually ripening in you, or whether you are only imitating the postures.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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