Abhanga 251

A person who demands respect for a holy role but shows no shame in their actual conduct, bowing outwardly while plotting inwardly, is disgracing that role, and the disgrace is its own punishment.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A sharp fake-religious-claimant abhang. Six pieces of evidence:

1. काखे कडासन आड पडे — खडबड खडबडे हुसकलें — carries the kāḍāsana under the armpit, falls in the way; rattle-rattle, shaken-out. The kāḍāsana (austerity-seat / discipline-cushion) is carried in the armpit (= as a casual prop, not used for actual practice). When the person falls (slips, misbehaves), the kāḍāsana rattles out — exposed-as-prop.

2. दादकरा दादकरा — फजितखोरा लाज नाहीं — dāda-karā, dāda-karā — fajita-khora, no shame. Dāda-karā — one who claims dignity, demands respect. Fajita-khora — scandal-eater, one whose food is humiliation. No shame. The dignity-claim is combined with shamelessness.

3. अवघा जाला राम राम — कोणी कर्म आचरे ना — everyone became Rāma Rāma — no one practices the karma. The empty-name-chanting critique. Everyone says Rāma Rāma (the practice has spread in form), but no one actually practices the karma (the actual disciplinary-action, the actual right-conduct). The form has spread without the substance. (Important reading: karma here means the actual right-action, the substance behind the name-chanting, not ritual-performance.)

4. हरिदासांच्या पडती पायां — म्हणती तयां नागवावें — falls at the Hari-dāsas' feet — says they should be robbed. The exterior-interior split. Externally — falls at the Hari-dāsas (servants-of-Hari, real-bhaktas)' feet. Internally — plots to rob them. The prostration-while-plotting combination.

5. दोहीं ठायीं फजीत जालें — पारणें केलें अवकळा — in both places — fajita; the pāraṇē made degraded. Fajita in both places — both at the kāḍāsana-armpit (caught in fall) and at the Hari-dāsa's feet (caught plotting). The pāraṇē (fast-breaking — should be solemn / pure) is made avakaḷā (degraded).

6. तुका म्हणे नाश केला — विटंबिला वेश जिहीं — Tuka says: destroyed — those who disgraced the garb. The closing-judgment. The vēśa (garb / appearance / costume of the religious-role) was viṭambilā (disgraced). The destruction (= self-destruction) is for those who disgraced the garb.

[T]

For someone today

This abhang gives a sharp diagnostic for spotting fake religious claimants. Watch for the person who carries the marks of discipline — like a prayer-seat tucked under the arm — merely as a prop, not as a real practice; when they slip up, that prop rattles loose and exposes them. Notice too the combination of demanding respect while showing no shame for what they actually do, and the way empty chanting of God's name can spread everywhere while genuine right conduct spreads nowhere — the form multiplies, the substance doesn't. The sharpest hypocrisy is bowing at the feet of true devotees while secretly plotting to cheat them. But Tukaram's closing note is almost gentle: you don't need to punish such people yourself, because disgracing a sacred role is its own destruction — the fraud undoes itself.

मराठी: ही ओवी खोट्या धार्मिक दावेदारांना ओळखण्याचा एक तीक्ष्ण निकष देते. ज्याच्याकडे साधनेची चिन्हं फक्त देखाव्यापुरती असतात — जसं काखेत अडकवलेलं आसन — पण खरी साधना नसते, अशा माणसाकडे लक्ष द्या; तो कुठे अडखळला की ते आसनही खाली पडून त्याचं खरं रूप उघडं पाडतं. आदर मागणं आणि स्वतःच्या वागण्याची अजिबात लाज नसणं, हे संयोजनही लक्षात ठेवा — तसंच देवाच्या नामाचा रिकामा जप सगळीकडे पसरू शकतो, पण खरं सदाचार मात्र कुठेच पसरत नाही — रूप वाढतं, आशय वाढत नाही. सर्वांत मोठा ढोंगीपणा म्हणजे खऱ्या भक्तांच्या पायावर डोकं ठेवणं आणि आतून त्यांना फसवण्याचा कट रचणं. पण तुकारामांचा शेवटचा सूर जवळपास सौम्य आहे — अशा लोकांना शिक्षा करण्याची गरज नाही, कारण पवित्र भूमिकेला कलंकित करणं हीच स्वतःची विनाशाची कृती असते — फसवणूक स्वतःच स्वतःला उघडं पाडते.

Where this applies

• Kāḍāsana-in-armpit. Discipline-as-prop only.
• Dignity-claim + shamelessness combination.
• Rāma-Rāmawithoutkarma. Form without substance.
• Prostration-with-plotting. Sharpest hypocrisy.
• Disgracing the garb is self-destruction. Don't attack — let the disgracer's act be their own destruction.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2448 — The easiest path to God is repeating divine names with love at home, right where you are,
• Abhanga 2467 — What looks like your whole world, like a fig to the insect living inside it, is only a tin
• Abhanga 2494 — Living in devotion turns an ordinary day into a festival and removes the fear of birth and
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with