Abhanga 3911
Tukaram warns that living a hidden double life, faithful in reputation but unfaithful in private conduct, carries real and serious consequences.
The verse
पतिव्रता ऐसी जगामध्यें मात । भोगी पांच सात अंधारीं ते ॥१॥
भ्रतारासी लेखी श्वानाचे समान । परपुरुषीं जाण संभ्रम तो ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तिच्या दोषा नाहीं पार । भोगील अघोर कुंभपाक ॥३॥
Literal translation
Pativratā-in-world-talk — bhogī-pāñch-sāta-andhārīm. Treats-husband-as-dog — sambhrama-on-para-puruṣa. Tukā: no-pār-doṣa-kumbha-pāka.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-hypocrite-pativratā polemic. In the world, the talk goes around that she's a devoted-wife — but in fact she engages with five-or-seven (others) in the dark. She counts her husband the same as a dog; her real excitement is on other men. There is no limit to her sins — she'll suffer the terrible boiling-pot hell. The structural-form is parallel to the anti-hypocrite-householder polemic (3816) — public-virtue, private-vice paired-contrasts. Note: read alongside Tukārām's positive-images of women (mother-as-Lord 2597, yātī-hīna-mati-hīna 2742, etc.) — this is not anti-women, but anti-hypocrisy.
For someone today
Tukaram describes someone who has a reputation in public for being devoted and faithful, while secretly living a completely different life in private, treating the person they're actually committed to with contempt and reserving their real excitement for someone else. He is blunt that this kind of hidden double life carries real consequences, describing it as leading to a terrible fate. The point is less about any one person and more about the danger of building a reputation on appearances while your private conduct tells a different story.
मराठी: तुकाराम अशा एका व्यक्तीचे वर्णन करतात जिची जगात इमानदार आणि निष्ठावान म्हणून ख्याती आहे, पण खाजगीत ती पूर्णपणे वेगळे जीवन जगते, ज्याच्याशी खरी बांधिलकी आहे त्याला तुच्छ मानते आणि खरी ओढ दुसऱ्याकडेच ठेवते. असे लपलेले दुहेरी जीवन गंभीर परिणाम घडवते असे ते स्पष्टपणे सांगतात, आणि याचा शेवट भयंकर होतो असे म्हणतात. यातील मुद्दा एका व्यक्तीपुरता मर्यादित नाही, तर बाह्य प्रतिष्ठेवर आधारलेले आयुष्य आणि त्यामागचे वेगळे खाजगी वर्तन यातील धोक्याबद्दल आहे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's anti-hypocrite-pativratā polemic
- Pair with 3816 (anti-hypocrite-householder paired-contrasts)