Abhanga 3188
Injustice left unpunished corrupts the whole community, and power that bends right and wrong to protect wrongdoers has become false authority.
The verse
दंड अन्यायाच्या माथां । देखोनि करावा सर्वथा ॥१॥
नये उगे बहुतां घाटूं । सिसें सोनियांत आटूं ॥ध्रु.॥
पापुण्यासाठीं । नीत केली सत्ता खोटी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे देवा । दोष कोणाचा तो दावा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Daṇḍa anyāyāchyā māthām — dēkhōnī karāvā sarvathā — daṇḍa on the head of the unjust — having seen, by all means do (it). Nayē ugē bahutām ghāṭūm — sisēm sōniyāmta āṭūm — do not pour many into silence — do not melt sisa into sōnē. Pāpa-puṇyāsāṭīm — nīta kēlī sattā khōṭī — for the sake of pāpa-puṇya — nīti has made sattā khōṭī. Tukā mhaṇe Devā — dōṣa kōṇāchā tō dāvā — Tukā says: O Deva — show whose doṣa it is.
What it means
A 4-verse justice-text. The image: don't melt lead into gold — i.e., don't let an injustice slip into the body of the community unpunished, or the whole alloy degrades. The structural critique: sattā (power) has gone khōṭī (false) because nīti itself has been redefined for the convenience of pāpa-puṇya bookkeepers. The closing turn — O Deva, name whose fault this is — appeals upward when worldly courts fail.
For someone today
Silence toward injustice is itself a degradation. Don't let "many" be passed over because the system finds it convenient. Power that bends nīti to cover wrongdoing is khōṭī sattā — false authority. When systems fail, name the fault upward.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's punish-injustice; lead-in-gold; sattā-khōṭī canonical justice-text
- Pair with 3171 (samartha-vichāra) and 3187 (dharma = bhūta-dayā)