Abhanga 270

A celebration built entirely on show, with no real substance behind it, earns you contempt now and trouble later, so make sure something genuine is actually there.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A wedding-feast hypocrisy critique abhang. Reads as a 5-verse description of wedding-show-with-internal-emptiness. Three claims:

1. Wedding-show items. Lamps, music, decoration, foot-pūjā, in-law-honoring, groom-bathing — all external-ceremonies. Tukaram lists them neutrally; the critique is in the closing.

2. वर्‍हाडियांचे लागे पाठीं — जैसी उटिका तेलीं — the wedding-party clings to the back like oil-paste. The image of the wedding-party: they cling to your back (= demand things, expect-things, hover-around). Like oil-paste sticking — uṭikā-tēli — the unwanted-clinging-quality.

3. तुका म्हणे जोडिला थुंका — पुढें नरका सामग्री — Tuka says: spittle-earned — ahead, naraka-supplies. The closing-judgment. Joḍilā thūnkā — what was earned wasthūnkā(spittle, disgust, contempt-of-onlookers). And pudhē narakā sāmagrī — ahead, you have preparedsupplies for naraka. The wedding-show-without-substance produces boththūnkā (current-disgust)andnaraka-supplies (future-karma).

(Compare 244's abhimāna-renunciation is julūma; 251's vēśa-disgracer; here, the wedding-show ostentation is a parallel-corruption.)

[T]

For someone today

Tukaram describes a wedding piled high with lamps, music, feasting, decoration, and every customary ritual — all the outward trappings that can be perfectly honest when there's real substance behind them, but become empty performance when there isn't. When a celebration turns into pure show, the crowd around it starts clinging and demanding like oil sticking to skin, hovering for what they can extract rather than genuinely sharing the occasion. Tukaram's judgment is sharp: an empty show like that earns you nothing but contempt in people's eyes right now, and stores up bad karma for the future, since putting on a display doesn't erase the consequences of hollowness underneath. The lesson applies to any ceremony in your own life — a wedding, a ritual, a public event — either put real substance into it, or don't dress it up as something it isn't.

मराठी: तुकाराम एका लग्नाचे वर्णन करतात — दिवट्या, वाद्ये, मेजवानी, सजावट, सगळे रीतीरिवाज — हे सगळे बाह्यांग खरे असले तर प्रामाणिक ठरतात, पण मागे काही सत्त्व नसेल तर निव्वळ देखावा बनतात. उत्सव जेव्हा नुसता देखावा बनतो, तेव्हा त्याभोवतीची गर्दी तेलासारखी चिकटते, मागत राहते, प्रसंग खऱ्या अर्थाने वाटून घेण्याऐवजी त्यातून काहीतरी ओरबाडून घेण्यासाठी घुटमळत राहते. तुकारामांचा निर्णय तीव्र आहे — असा पोकळ देखावा आताच लोकांच्या नजरेत तुच्छता मिळवून देतो आणि पुढे वाईट कर्माची शिदोरीही साठवतो, कारण दिखाव्याने आतील पोकळपणाचे परिणाम मिटत नाहीत. हा धडा तुमच्या आयुष्यातील कोणत्याही समारंभाला लागू होतो — लग्न, विधी, सार्वजनिक कार्यक्रम — एकतर त्यात खरे सत्त्व घाला, नाहीतर त्याला जे नाही तसे भासवू नका.

Where this applies

• Ceremony-show-items. Honest if substance present; show-only if absent.
• Wedding-party clings like oil-paste. Recognize.
• Empty-form earns both disgust and naraka-supplies. Cost.
• Either substance or no-show. Implicit-instruction.

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