Abhanga 3810
Instead of mocking someone else's flaw while ignoring your own, speak only what does real good and work humbly on purifying yourself.
The verse
ते चि करीं मात । जेणें होइल तुझें हित ॥१॥
काय बडबड अमित । सुख जिव्हारीं सिणविसी ॥ध्रु.॥
जो मुळव्याधी पीडिला । त्यासी देखोन हांसे खरजुला ॥२॥
आराथकरी सोसी । त्यासि हांसे तो आळसी ॥३॥
क्षयरोगी म्हणे परता । सर रोगिया तूं आतां ॥४॥
वडस दोहीं डोळां वाढले । आणिकां कानें कोंचें म्हणे ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे लागों पायां । शुद्ध करा आपणियां ॥६॥
Literal translation
Speak-of-your-hita — not-endless-baḍabaḍa. Piles-pained-laughs-at-leper. Vomit-suffering-laughs-at-lazy. Consumptive-says-go-aside-to-other-sick. Vaḍas-on-eyes-laughs-at-bent-ear. Tukā: bow-and-purify-yourself.
What it means
A 6-verse anti-comparative-mockery polemic. Speak only that which is for your own welfare — what is the endless babbling? You tire the joy of your own heart. One suffering piles laughs at the leper. One sick with chronic illness laughs at the lazy. The consumptive says to another sick man, get away. One whose eyes are bloated calls another bent-eared. Bow at (their) feet — and purify yourself. Sociologically precise — Tukārām observes the universal habit of each sufferer mocking other sufferers — none seeing his own wound. The remedy: bow, not mock.
For someone today
Tukaram tells us to speak only what actually does us good, not endless idle chatter that just wears out our own peace of mind. He gives a series of sharp little pictures: someone suffering from piles laughs at a person with a skin disease, a chronically sick person laughs at someone merely lazy, a person with tuberculosis tells another sick man to step aside, and someone with trouble in both eyes mocks another for a bent ear. Everyone is quick to laugh at someone else's flaw while carrying their own. His remedy is simple: instead of mocking others, bow humbly and work on cleaning up yourself.
मराठी: तुकाराम सांगतात की आपले खरे हित होईल असेच बोलावे, उगाच वेळ घालवणारे बडबडणे नको, कारण त्याने आपल्याच मनाची शांती संपते. ते काही मार्मिक उदाहरणे देतात: मूळव्याधीने त्रस्त माणूस त्वचारोग असलेल्याला हसतो, दीर्घकालीन आजाराने ग्रस्त माणूस आळशी माणसाला हसतो, क्षयरोगी दुसऱ्या आजारी माणसाला बाजूला हो असे सांगतो, आणि दोन्ही डोळ्यांत त्रास असलेला माणूस दुसऱ्याच्या वाकड्या कानाची टिंगल करतो. प्रत्येकजण स्वतःचा दोष विसरून दुसऱ्याच्या दोषाला हसायला तयार असतो. यावर त्यांचा उपाय सोपा आहे: दुसऱ्याची टिंगल करण्याऐवजी नम्रपणे झुकावे आणि स्वतःला शुद्ध करण्याचे काम करावे.
Where this applies
- When you catch yourself mocking someone else's flaw while ignoring your own
- When gossip and idle talk are wearing down your own peace of mind
- When you feel superior to someone struggling with a problem similar to your own
- When you're tempted to laugh at someone's weakness instead of showing humility