Abhanga 4166
When wrongdoing takes root and truth gets buried, justice, nature, and even old wisdom lose their power to set things right.
The verse
पापाचिया मुळें । जालें सत्याचें वाटोळें ॥१॥
दोष जाले बळिवंत । नाहीं ऐसी जाली नीत ॥ध्रु.॥
मेघ पडों भीती । पिकें सांडियेली क्षिती ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कांहीं । वेदा वीर्य शक्ति नाहीं ॥३॥
Literal translation
Pāpāchiyā muḷe — jāle satyāche vāṭōḷe — by the root of pāpa — truth became rolled-up-and-tossed. Dōṣa jāle baḷivanta — nāhīm aisī jālī nīta — faults became powerful — justice became as-if-not. Megha paḍōm bhītī — pike sāṇḍiyelī kṣitī — clouds fear to fall — crops have abandoned the earth. Tukā mhaṇe kāhīm — vedā vīrya śakti nāhīm — Tukā says: there is no vīrya and śakti in the Veda (anymore).
What it means
A 4-verse Kali-prophecy. Pāpa-roots — truth-rolled-up; faults-powerful — justice-gone; even-clouds-fear-to-rain — crops-leave-the-earth; even-the-Veda-has-no-vīrya-and-śakti-left. A sharp ecological-and-textual-collapse vision.
For someone today
Tukārām says: when pāpa roots itself, truth is rolled up, justice fails, even nature fears to give, and ancient scriptures lose their power.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's Kali-prophecy / ecological-collapse canonical
- Companion to 2961 (Kali-prophecy / 17th-c social-criticism)