Abhanga 4025
Do not be intimidated by small-minded tricks or speak beneath yourself, and remember that whoever finds fault in a genuinely good person only reveals their own poor upbringing.
The verse
सांडावी हे भीड अधमाचे चाळे । मद्यपीर बरळे भलत्या छंदें ॥१॥
ऐसे तंव तुम्ही नाहीं जी दिसत । कां हें अनुचित वदलेत ॥ध्रु.॥
फांटा जाला त्यासी नाहीं वोढा वारा । वेरसा चि खरा हाटो गुण ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे नाहीं ज्याच्या बापा ताळा । तो देखे विटाळा संतां अंगीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Leave-bhīḍa-adhama-tricks. Mad-pīra-blathers-any-chhanda. You-don't-look-such — why-anuchita. Fork-no-wind-pull — true-trade-by-guṇa. Tukā: whose-bāpa-no-tāḷa — sees-viṭāḷa-in-santa-anga.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-low-tricks polemic. Leave this timidity in face of the low one's tricks; the drunken priest blathers in random tempos. You don't look (to be) such — why did you speak improperly? At a fork-in-the-road, there's no pull-of-wind; the true shop is by quality. The one whose own bāpa has no propriety — sees defilement in the santa's body. The closing aphorism is striking: those-who-see-viṭāḷa-in-santas-have-their-own-bāpa-without-propriety.
For someone today
Tukaram says to stop being hesitant or intimidated by the schemes of small-minded people, the way a drunken priest rambles nonsense in whatever tone suits him. He points out that such behavior does not even match who you really are, so why speak in a way beneath yourself? Once two paths diverge, no outside pressure should sway you; what matters is genuine quality, not appearances. He closes with a sharp observation: anyone who claims to see impurity in a true saint is really exposing his own upbringing, since a person raised with real values would not speak that way.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की क्षुद्र माणसांच्या डावपेचांना घाबरून राहणे सोडून द्या, कारण दारुड्या पुजारी वाटेल त्या सुरात बरळत असतो. ते सांगतात, असे बोलणे तुमच्या खऱ्या स्वभावाला शोभत नाही, मग तुम्ही स्वतःहून खालच्या पातळीवर का बोलावे? जिथे रस्ता फुटतो, तिथे कोणत्याही वाऱ्याच्या ओढीने वाहून जाऊ नये; खरी किंमत गुणवत्तेवरून ठरते, दिसण्यावरून नाही. शेवटी ते तीक्ष्ण निरीक्षण नोंदवतात, जो कोणी खऱ्या संतामध्ये दोष शोधतो, तो खरे तर स्वतःच्याच संस्कारांची कमतरता उघड करतो, कारण खऱ्या संस्कारात वाढलेला माणूस असे बोलणारच नाही.
Where this applies
- When you feel pressured to go along with petty, low behavior just to fit in
- When someone criticizes a genuinely good person and you wonder what that reveals about the critic
- When you are tempted to speak in a way that does not match your true character
- When you need to judge situations by quality and substance rather than by outside pressure