Abhanga 3355
Misplaced mercy toward wrongdoing does not protect you from pain, it invites more harm, and a fault left uncorrected never actually stops.
The verse
सिंदळीचे सोर चोराची दया । तो ही जाणा तया संवसर्गी ॥१॥
फुकासाटीं भोगे दुःखाचा वाटा । उभारोनी कांटा वाटेवरी ॥ध्रु.॥
सर्प पोसूनियां दुधाचा नास । केलें थीता विष अमृताचें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे यासी न करितां दंडण । पुढिल खंडण नव्हे दोषा ॥३॥
Literal translation
Simdaḷīñce sōra chōrāñcī dayā — prostitute's fault, thief's mercy; tō hī jāṇā tayā samvasargī — know him too by samvasarga. Phukāsāṭīm bhōge duḥkhāñcā vāṭā — for free, suffer the path of duḥkha; ubhārōnī kāṇṭā vāṭevarī — raising thorn on road. Sarpa pōsūnīyām dudhāñcā nāsa — nurturing snake — milk's nāsa; kele thītā viṣa amrtāñce — turned amrta into viṣa on the spot. Tukā mhaṇe yāsī na karitām daṇḍaṇa — Tukā says: without punishing these; puḍhila khaṇḍaṇa navhe dōṣā — no khaṇḍana of dōṣa ahead.
What it means
A 3-verse bad-company warning. Misplaced-mercy turns-amrta-to-viṣa; nurturing-snake-with-milk wastes-the-milk. Without-daṇḍa, no-khaṇḍa of-the-dōṣa.
For someone today
Tukaram warns that misplaced mercy has real consequences, saying that if you excuse a thief's wrongdoing or keep company with someone whose faults you should recognize, you become known by that same association. He points out that this kind of leniency does not spare you pain, it actually plants thorns along your own path for free. He compares it to feeding milk to a snake, an act meant to nurture that instead wastes the milk and turns something as precious as nectar into poison on the spot. His conclusion is blunt, if wrongdoing is never corrected or held accountable, the fault behind it will never actually stop.
मराठी: तुकाराम इशारा देतात की चुकीच्या ठिकाणी दाखवलेल्या दयेचे खरे परिणाम होतात, जर तुम्ही चोराच्या चुकीकडे दुर्लक्ष केले किंवा ज्याचे दोष ओळखायला हवेत अशा माणसाची संगत धरली, तर त्याच संगतीमुळे तुम्हीही तसेच ओळखले जाता. अशा प्रकारची सौम्यता तुम्हाला दुःखापासून वाचवत नाही, उलट ती फुकटातच तुमच्याच वाटेवर काटे पेरते, असे ते सांगतात. ते याची तुलना सापाला दूध पाजण्याशी करतात, जे पोषण करण्याच्या उद्देशाने केले जाते पण त्यामुळे दूध वाया जाते आणि अमृतासारखी मौल्यवान गोष्ट तत्क्षणी विष बनते. त्यांचा निष्कर्ष स्पष्ट आहे, जर चुकीच्या वागण्याला कधीच सुधारले किंवा जबाबदार धरले नाही, तर त्यामागचा दोष कधीच थांबणार नाही.
Where this applies
- When someone keeps excusing a dishonest friend's behavior instead of holding them accountable
- When a person's misplaced kindness ends up enabling someone else's harmful habits
- When you realize that tolerating wrongdoing quietly only invites more trouble onto your own path
- When a leader or parent avoids necessary correction and the same mistake keeps repeating