Abhanga 4199
Making slander a daily habit turns a person into a donkey in human form, and the comfort of that habit leads only to a harsh reckoning.
The verse
एक ते गाढव मनुष्याचे वेष । हालविती पुस पुढें दाढी ॥१॥
निंदा हें भोजन जेवण तयांसी । जोडी घरीं रासी पातकांच्या ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे सुखें बैसोनियां खाती । कुंभपाकीं होती नर्कवासी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Donkey-in-human-garb — wagging-pusa-beard. Nindā-as-bhōjana-jēvaṇa — rāśi-of-pātaka-at-home. Tukā: eat-comfortably-but-narkavāsī-in-kumbhipāka.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-nindaka-eaters text. Some are donkeys in human garb — wagging their beard. For them, slander is their daily meal; they amass a heap of sin at home. Tukā says: they eat in comfort sitting down — but they go to hell in the boiling-pot. The diagnostic: slander-as-daily-fare makes one a donkey-in-human-garb. Pair with 4189 (nindaka-as-paropakārī-washerman — counterpart that softens this).
For someone today
Some people look human but behave like donkeys wagging their chins, because gossip and slander have become their everyday meal. Every time they tear someone down they are stacking up a heap of sin at home, even while they enjoy the taste of it in the moment. Tukaram warns that this comfort is an illusion: those who feast on slander this easily are headed for the boiling-pot hell of kumbhipaka. The verse is blunt about how habitual backbiting corrodes a person from the inside, no matter how harmless or satisfying it feels while it is happening.
मराठी: काही माणसं दिसायला माणसासारखी दिसतात, पण दाढी हलवत गप्पा मारणाऱ्या गाढवासारखी वागतात, कारण निंदा हेच त्यांचं रोजचं जेवण बनलेलं असतं. दुसऱ्याला बोलून दुखावताना ते नकळत घरात पापाची रास साठवत असतात, तरी त्या क्षणी त्यांना त्यात मजा वाटते. तुकाराम इशारा देतात की हे सुख भ्रामक आहे. जे इतक्या सहजतेने निंदा-भोजन करतात, ते शेवटी कुंभपाक नरकात जातात. सवयीने केलेली निंदा माणसाला आतून पोखरते, मग ती त्या क्षणी कितीही निरुपद्रवी किंवा आनंददायी वाटो, हे या अभंगातून स्पष्ट सांगितलं आहे.
Where this applies
- When gossip about a coworker or neighbor feels like harmless fun in conversation
- When you catch yourself enjoying the retelling of someone else's failures or mistakes
- When slander has become such a habit that a day does not feel complete without it
- When you excuse cruel talk about others because it feels like just venting or just the truth