Abhanga 1281

Using the appearance of devotion to flatter people and perform for sympathy or money turns you into a public spectacle and costs you far more dignity than whatever you gain.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Anti-fake-Hari-dāsa abhang in Tuka's bluntest mode.

The portrait: a person calls himself Hari-dāsa (as a profession, for income) — but his actual conduct shows the truth. The marker: hīna himself, he calls a dīna "mahārāja" — flattering whoever might give. Hīna (the low one) calling mahārāja (great king) to a dīna (poor man) is the giveaway of hāl-soliciting.

The image hālavisī kulē sabhē-mājī — you wag your kulē (buttocks) in the sabhā (assembly) — is among the most brutal images Tukaram deploys. The fake-Hari-dāsa's body-language in the assembly — the swaying for effect, the performative grovel — is reduced to kulē hālavisī (buttocks-wagging). This is kīrtana-for-coins; the audience is invited to throw alms.

The closing diagnosis: pōṭē kēlī viṭambanā — dīna jālā janā kīmva bhākī — the belly itself has made you viṭambana (a mockery, an object of public ridicule); you became a dīna before the people, begging kīmva (pity). The fake-Hari-dāsa is reduced to a dīna (poor-pitiful one) before the very public he wanted to impress.

This is a cousin to 1209's gurguḍī-cī lāmba naḷī, 1231's manuṣya-parī kutarīm tīm, 1258's sāṇḍōvyāsī Devācī karaṇḍī, 1280's bhōpaḷā — Tuka's series of fake-bhakti portraits.

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For someone today

Tukaram asks bluntly: you call yourself a devotee of Hari, so why have you no shame, when you yourself are the lowly one flattering a poor man as if he were a great king, just because you need something from him? Your stomach isn't getting filled honestly, so you perform, swaying and posturing in front of the crowd to draw sympathy and coins. Tukaram's diagnosis is sharp: it's your own hunger, your own need, that has turned you into a public spectacle, begging for pity in front of everyone. Using devotion as a costume for what is really a hustle for survival costs you your dignity, and that loss is worse than whatever you gain.

मराठी: तुकाराम स्पष्टच विचारतात: तू स्वतःला हरिदास म्हणवतोस, मग तुला लाज कशी वाटत नाही, जेव्हा तू स्वतः हीन असूनही एखाद्या गरीब माणसाला काहीतरी हवे म्हणून महाराज म्हणून खुशामत करतोस? तुझे पोट प्रामाणिकपणे भरत नाही, म्हणून तू सभेसमोर नाटक करतोस, डोलतोस, सहानुभूती आणि पैसे मिळवण्यासाठी. तुकारामांचे निदान अगदी परखड आहे: तुझी स्वतःची भूक, तुझी स्वतःची गरज, हिनेच तुला लोकांसमोर तमाशा बनवले आहे, सर्वांसमोर किव मागत बसवले आहे. भक्तीचा वेश घालून खरे तर पोट भरण्यासाठी केलेली धडपड तुझी अब्रू घालवते, आणि तो तोटा तू मिळवलेल्या कोणत्याही गोष्टीपेक्षा मोठा असतो.

Where this applies

• When you catch yourself flattering someone insincerely because you need money or favor from them
• When you notice you're performing devotion or virtue for an audience rather than living it quietly
• When you're tempted to dress up a need for income or attention as a spiritual calling
• When you feel the sting of being pitied in public and realize your own choices led there

Related verses

• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is