Abhanga 3760
Empty self-display before real greatness looks absurd to everyone watching, and the greatest danger comes from a smiling, gentle-seeming person who will harm you while still wearing that same soft smile.
The verse
खद्योतें फुलविलें रविपुढें ढुंग । साक्षी तंव जग उभयतां ॥१॥
आपल्या आपण नाहीं शोभों येत । चार करी स्फीत दाखवूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
खाणार ताकाचें आसातें माजीरें । आपणें चि अधीर कळों येतें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे जळो मैंदाची मवाळी । दावूनियां नळी कापी सुखें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Khadyōtem phulavile ravipuḍhe ḍhunga — the firefly puffs its rear before the sun; sākṣī tamva jaga ubhayatām — the world is witness to both. Āpalyā āpaṇa nāhīm śōbhōm yeta — one cannot shine by oneself; chāra karī sphīta dākhavūni — the spy makes (one) puffed-up by showing-off. Khāṇāra tākāchem āsātem mājīre — the buttermilk-eater (low-fare-eater) (still) arrogant; āpaṇe chi adhīra kaḷōm yete — himself is found-out as restless. Tukā mhaṇe jaḷō maimdāchī mavāḷī — Tukā says: burn the cheat's gentleness; dāvūniyām naḷī kāpī sukhem — showing the throat (tube), (he) cuts (it) with pleasure.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-hypocrisy polemic with sharp images. Firefly-puffing-rear-at-sun (futile-display); one-cannot-shine-alone, a-spy-puffs-one-up; buttermilk-eater-still-arrogant, found-out-by-his-own-restlessness; cheat's-gentle-pose — burn-it — he-smiles-while-slitting-the-throat. Among Tukārām's most vivid 17th-c social diagnoses of false-gentleness.
For someone today
Tukaram paints the picture of a firefly puffing out its glow in front of the sun, an absurd little display that the whole world can plainly see for what it is. He points out that no one truly shines through self-promotion alone, since it takes a flatterer whispering praise to puff someone up in the first place. He describes a petty, arrogant person who lives on nothing but buttermilk yet still acts superior, and whose own restlessness gives away the act. His sharpest warning is against the smiling cheat, the person with soft, gentle words who will cut your throat while still wearing that same pleasant smile.
मराठी: तुकाराम काजव्याने सूर्यासमोर आपला उजेड फुगवून दाखवण्याचे चित्र रंगवतात, हा एक हास्यास्पद देखावा असतो जो सगळ्या जगाला स्पष्ट दिसतो. ते सांगतात की केवळ स्वतःच्या प्रौढीने कोणी खरोखर चमकत नाही, त्यासाठी खुशामत करणारा कोणीतरी लागतोच जो फुगवून मोठे करतो. साध्या ताकावर जगणारा पण तरीही श्रेष्ठत्वाचा आव आणणारा गर्विष्ठ माणूस स्वतःच्या अस्वस्थतेमुळेच उघडा पडतो असे ते सांगतात. त्यांचा सर्वात तीक्ष्ण इशारा गोड बोलणाऱ्या ठकाबद्दल आहे, जो हसतमुख राहूनच तुमचा गळा कापतो.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's firefly-at-sun + mainda-cuts-throat-smiling canonical anti-hypocrisy
- Companion to the fake-renunciate/fake-guru polemics (2844-2847, 2962)