Abhanga 3873
A preacher who performs religious discourse purely for money, without real spiritual knowledge or conduct, is running a fraud, Tukaram says, not genuine devotion.
The verse
न कळे ब्रम्हज्ञान आचार विचार । लटिका वेव्हार करीतसे ॥१॥
विश्वामित्री पोटीं तयाचा अवतार । नांव महाखर चांडाळाचें ॥ध्रु.॥
द्रव्यइच्छेसाटीं करीतसे कथा । काय त्या पापिष्ठा न मिळे खाया ॥२॥
पोट पोसावया तोंडें बडबडी । नाहीं धडफुडी एक गोष्टी ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे तया काय व्याली रांड । येउनिया भंड जनामध्यें ॥४॥
Literal translation
No-brahma-jñāna-no-āchāra-vichāra — laṭikā-vēvhāra. Viśvāmitra-in-pōṭa — mahā-khara-chāṇḍāḷa. For-dravya-iccha-does-kathā — find-eating-elsewhere? Pōṭa-pōṣaṇē-tongue-baḍabaḍa — no-dhaḍa-phuḍī. Tukā: what-rāṇḍa-bore — bhaṇḍa-among-jana.
What it means
A 4-verse anti-mercenary-kathākāra polemic. He knows no brahma-knowledge, no conduct, no reflection — he carries on a false business. His incarnation is from Viśvāmitra's womb — name him great-ass-chāṇḍāḷa. He does kathā for money — could that sinner not find food elsewhere? To fill his belly, his tongue chatters — not one whole-and-clean thing. What woman bore him! — when he turns up among people, only mess. The accusation is sociologically specific: 17th-c. travelling-kathākāras who didn't know the doctrine but ran kathā as a paid-business. Pair with 3074 (anti-monetized-kīrtana), 2962 (anti-fake-guru), 2844-2847 (anti-fake-renunciate cluster).
For someone today
Tukaram takes aim at preachers who perform religious discourse without actually knowing or living the teaching, doing it purely to earn money. Such a person, he says, carries no real spiritual understanding or right conduct behind his words, just an empty, dishonest business dressed up as devotion. Tukaram asks bluntly whether this kind of person couldn't find some other honest way to fill his stomach, and warns that wherever he shows up he brings only confusion and trouble to people, since nothing he says is whole or trustworthy.
मराठी: तुकाराम अशा प्रवचनकारांवर टीका करतात जे खरे ज्ञान न बाळगता, केवळ पैसे मिळवण्यासाठी कथा-प्रवचन करतात. असा माणूस, ते म्हणतात, त्याच्या बोलण्यामागे कोणतेही खरे आध्यात्मिक आकलन किंवा सदाचार नसतो, फक्त भक्तीचा आव आणलेला एक खोटा व्यवहार असतो. तुकाराम स्पष्ट विचारतात की अशा माणसाला पोट भरण्यासाठी दुसरा प्रामाणिक मार्ग सापडत नाही का, आणि इशारा देतात की तो जिथे जातो तिथे लोकांमध्ये फक्त गोंधळ आणि त्रास निर्माण करतो, कारण त्याचे कोणतेही बोलणे पूर्ण किंवा विश्वासार्ह नसते.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's anti-mercenary-kathākāra canonical
- Pair with 3074 (anti-monetized-kīrtana), 2962 (anti-fake-guru)