Abhanga 1439

There's a false teaching that says the self alone is God, that eating well counts as devotion, and that death itself is liberation — but that's just a heretic's doctrine. Under the guise of caring for the body, such teachers exploit people, twisting the Purana and the Veda into lies to justify it. Whatever suits their own comfort becomes their reasoning, and they go on to claim there's no rebirth at all. Tuka says: no matter what they claim, Yama's staff still comes down on their backs — it doesn't stop to weigh their excuses about right and wrong.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

Anti-cārvāka / anti-pāpāṇḍī polemic abhang. A direct attack on a materialist-religious doctrine. The opening identifies the heretic's three-part theology: jīva tō chi Deva — bhōjana tē bhakti — maraṇa tē chi mukti — pāpāṇḍyācī — (1) jīva itself is Deva; (2) eating is bhakti; (3) death itself is mukti — that's thepāpāṇḍī's doctrine. (Pāpāṇḍī — one of the strongest invective-words in Marathi — heretic / charlatan; the doctrine described matches the cārvāka-lokāyata + body-pampering tantric distortions of Tukaram's day.)

The accusation: piṇḍācyā pōṣakī nāgavilēm jana — laṭikēm purāṇa kēlē Veda — inbody-feeding— they haverobbedthe people; — they have made thePurāṇaandVedaintolaṭikā(= false / counterfeit). The body-feeding-doctrine lets them rob people (= materially exploit them); they fake the Purāṇa-Veda authority to do it. (Anti-fake-religious-pedagogy — the body-pampering-spirituality uses Veda-Purāṇa-name to legitimize itself.)

The argument-style: manā ālā taisā karitī vicāra — mhaṇatī samsāra nāhīm punhā — whatever pleases themanā— that's theirvicāra(thinking); — they say —no samsāra punhā(= no rebirth). Their thinking is whatever-pleases-the-mind; — they deny rebirth. (Classic cārvāka tenet: no afterlife, no karma-fruit, no rebirth.)

The closing-warning: pāṭhīm uḍatī yama-daṇḍa — pāpa-puṇya laṇḍa na vicārī — at theback(pāṭha) —yama-daṇḍa(= Yama's staff) —flies(= comes flying down); —pāpa-puṇya— thelaṇḍa(= rascal) — doesnot consider. Yama-daṇḍa is on its way; the laṇḍa (= scoundrel — strong invective) fails to consider pāpa-puṇya. (= no-rebirth-doctrine doesn't make rebirth go away; Yama's staff still descends.)

[T]

For someone today

There's a false teaching that says the self alone is God, that eating well counts as devotion, and that death itself is liberation — but that's just a heretic's doctrine. Under the guise of caring for the body, such teachers exploit people, twisting the Purana and the Veda into lies to justify it. Whatever suits their own comfort becomes their reasoning, and they go on to claim there's no rebirth at all. Tuka says: no matter what they claim, Yama's staff still comes down on their backs — it doesn't stop to weigh their excuses about right and wrong.

मराठी: जीव हाच देव, खाणे हीच भक्ती, आणि मरण हीच मुक्ती — असे म्हणणारा हा केवळ पाखंडी सिद्धांत आहे. देहाचे लाड पुरवण्याच्या नावाखाली असे लोक इतरांना लुबाडतात, आणि आपल्या स्वार्थासाठी पुराण-वेदांनाही खोटे ठरवतात. जे मनाला रुचेल तोच त्यांचा विचार असतो, आणि ते सांगतात की पुनर्जन्म वगैरे काही नसतेच. तुका म्हणतात, तरीही यमाचा दंड त्यांच्या पाठीवर पडतोच — तो त्यांच्या पाप-पुण्याच्या सबबी ऐकत बसत नाही.

Where this applies

• When you notice someone justifying self-indulgence by calling it spiritual growth.
• When a teacher or guru twists scripture to excuse exploiting or overcharging their followers.
• When you're tempted to believe there are no real consequences for how you treat others.
• When you catch yourself picking beliefs simply because they're comfortable rather than because they're true.

Related verses

• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 4273 — If your time, money, and attention flow easily to everything except God and genuine goodne
• Abhanga 4486 — Tukaram shows that when God truly enters a place, worry flees and deep understanding can a
• Abhanga 2348 — Sitting in true, wholehearted kathā where God, devotee, and Name meet is itself the highes