Abhanga 3906
Tukaram condemns the hypocrite who claims purity but chases profit anywhere, warning that when greed rules the body, there is no real path forward except turning back to God.
The verse
खिस्तीचा उदीम ब्राम्हण कलयुगीं । महारवाडीं मांगीं हिंडतसे ॥१॥
वेवसाव करितां पर्वत मांगासी । ते पैं विटाळासी न मनिती ॥ध्रु.॥
मांगिणीशीं नित्य करीतसे लेखा । तोंडावरि थुंका पडतसे ॥२॥
आशा माया रांडा नांव हें कागदीं । आठवीना कधीं नारायण ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे देह जालें पराधीन । पांडुरंगाविण गति नाहीं ॥४॥
Literal translation
Khistīchā-udīma — Kali-yuga-brāhmaṇa — wanders-Mahāra-Māngī-vāḍī. Business-with-Mānga — doesn't-think-viṭāḷa. With-māngiṇī-daily-lēkhā — spit-on-face. Āśā-māyā-rāṇḍās — Name-on-paper — never-Nārāyaṇa. Tukā: dēha-parādhīna — no-gati-without-Pāṇḍuranga.
What it means
A 4-verse anti-corrupt-brāhmaṇa polemic. The Kali-yuga brāhmaṇa's business-of-strife: he wanders the Mahāra and Mānga neighborhoods. Doing trade with the Mānga, he doesn't think it defilement (because money pulls). With the Māngiṇī he does daily-account — spit on his face! Desire and illusion are his wives; the Name (of Nārāyaṇa) is only in his account-book — he never remembers Nārāyaṇa. The body has become slave-to-others; without Pāṇḍuranga, no path. Sociologically precise: the brāhmaṇa who maintains ritual-untouchability publicly but breaks it in commercial dealings with low-castes for money — and his real Name is the account-ledger, not Nārāyaṇa. Compare 3741 (clap-for-vulgar-jokes), 3816 (anti-hypocrite-householder), 3873 (anti-mercenary-kathākāra).
For someone today
Tukaram calls out a kind of hypocrisy he sees around him: a high-caste man who claims purity rules matter, yet goes into the neighborhoods of people he treats as untouchable whenever there's money to be made, keeping his accounts with them daily without a second thought about the very rules he claims to uphold. His real devotion turns out to be to desire and illusion, and his true god is the ledger where he tracks profit, never Narayana. Tukaram's point is sharp: when your body and attention are ruled by greed, there's no real path forward except turning back to God.
मराठी: तुकाराम एक ढोंगीपणा उघड करतात, जो उच्चवर्णीय शुचितेचे नियम पाळतो असे सांगतो, पण पैसा मिळतो तिथे तो स्वतः अस्पृश्य समजलेल्या लोकांच्या वस्तीत जातो आणि रोज हिशोब ठेवतो, आपण मानत असलेल्या नियमांची आठवणही न ठेवता. त्याची खरी भक्ती आशा आणि माया यांच्याशीच असते, आणि त्याचा खरा देव म्हणजे नफा मोजणारे बाड, नारायण नव्हे. तुकारामांचा मुद्दा स्पष्ट आहे, जेव्हा शरीर आणि लक्ष लोभाच्या ताब्यात जाते, तेव्हा देवाकडे परत वळण्याशिवाय दुसरा खरा मार्ग उरत नाही.
Where this applies
- When you notice someone preaching one set of values while quietly breaking them for personal profit
- When money or ambition has quietly become the thing you actually worship, above everything you claim to value
- When you catch yourself keeping careful track of gains while forgetting what really matters to you
- When you sense that greed has taken control of your choices and you need a way back to something truer