Abhanga 4002
Some livelihoods are structured around exploitation and dishonesty, and no respectable title can make room for virtue inside them.
The verse
कांहीं दुसरा विचार । न लगे करावा चि फार ॥१॥
सेट्या ना चौधरी । पांडेपण वाहे शिरीं ॥ध्रु.॥
पाप न लगे धुंडावें । पाहिजे तरि तेथें जावें ॥२॥
जकातीचा धंदा । तेथें पाप वसे सदा ॥३॥
गाई म्हसी हेड । तुप विकी महा द्वाड ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे पाहीं । तेथें पुण्या रीघ नाहीं ॥५॥
Literal translation
Don't-need-other-vichāra. Śēṭi-or-chaudhari — pāṇḍē-paṇa-on-head. No-need-search-pāpa — go-where-it-is. Jakātīchā-dhandā — pāpa-sadā. Cattle-trade — ghee-seller-mahā-dvāḍa. Tukā: no-puṇya-rīga-there.
What it means
A 5-verse occupational-polemic. You don't need much further argument: the merchant, the village-headman, the clerk-titles (carried on the head as honors) — these are pāpa-occupations. You don't need to search for sin; if you want it, just go where it is. The custom-tax-officer's job — there sin always dwells. The cattle-buffalo trader, the ghee-seller — these are extremely vile. Into that, puṇya has no entry. 17th-c. Mughal-era Deccan occupational documentary: the jakāti-officer (Mughal-era customs-collector — taking unjust toll), the cattle-trader (who profits from slaughter), the ghee-seller (who adulterates) — all named-as-pāpa-occupations. Tukārām himself was a kuṇabī-trader; perhaps this is from observation of fellow-merchants' practices.
For someone today
Tukaram says you do not need to philosophize about where sin comes from, you can just point to where it lives. He names the merchant, the village headman, the clerk who wears his status like a title on his head, the customs officer who always profits from unjust tolls, the cattle trader who profits from slaughter, and the ghee seller who adulterates what he sells. In these lines of work, he says bluntly, there is no room left for merit or virtue to enter. It is a sharp reminder that some ways of making a living are structured around exploitation and dishonesty, no matter how respectable they look from the outside.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की पाप कुठून येते याचे तत्त्वज्ञान मांडायची गरज नाही, ते कुठे राहते हे नुसते दाखवले तरी पुरे. ते व्यापारी, गावचा चौधरी, डोक्यावर पदवीसारखा दर्जा मिरवणारा कारकून, अन्याय्य जकात वसूल करणारा जकातदार, कत्तलीतून नफा कमावणारा गुरेढोरे व्यापारी आणि भेसळ करणारा तूप विक्रेता यांची नावे घेतात. या धंद्यांमध्ये, ते स्पष्टपणे सांगतात, पुण्याला शिरायला जागाच उरत नाही. काही उपजीविकेच्या मार्गांची रचनाच शोषण आणि अप्रामाणिकपणावर आधारलेली असते, ती वरून कितीही प्रतिष्ठित दिसली तरी, याची ही तीक्ष्ण आठवण आहे.
Where this applies
- When you are weighing whether a job or business is worth taking despite how it makes its profit
- When someone hides behind a respectable title while their actual practices exploit others
- When you notice a whole industry built on cutting corners, adulteration, or unjust tolls
- When you want plain language for saying that some livelihoods corrupt the people in them