Abhanga 4231
When a community turns corrupt, factious, and dangerous, with power in reckless hands that harm good and bad alike, it is wiser to live quietly alone than to remain there.
The verse
न मिळती एका एक । जये नगरीचे लोक ॥१॥
भलीं तेथें राहूं नये । क्षणें होईंल न कळे काय ॥ध्रु.॥
न करितां अन्याय । बळें करी अपाय ॥२॥
नाहीं पुराणाची प्रीति । ठायींठायीं पंचाइती ॥३॥
भल्या बुर्या मारी । होतां कोणी न निवारी ॥४॥
अविचार्या हातीं । देऊनि प्रजा नागविती ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे दरी । सुखें सेवावी ते बरी ॥६॥
Literal translation
Na miḷatī ekā eka — jaye nagarīñce lōka — where the people of a nagara don't get-along. Bhalīm tethe rāhūm naye — kṣaṇe hōīmla na kaḷe kāya — good ones shouldn't stay there; in a kṣaṇa, what happens is not known. Na karitām anyāya — baḷe karī apāya — without committing anyāya, (they) cause apāya forcibly. Nāhī purāṇāñcī prītī — ṭhāyīm ṭhāyīm pañchāyatī — no love for purāṇa; councils-factions everywhere. Bhalyā burṛyā mārī — hōtām kōṇī na nivārī — (they) kill good-bad alike; no one prevents. Avichāryā hātīm — deūnī prajā nāgavī — (by putting authority) in avichārī hands, prajā is fleeced. Tukā mhaṇe darī — sukhe sevāvī te barī — Tukā says: a cave — happily inhabit it — that is better.
What it means
A canonical 6-verse anti-bad-city / anti-bad-governance text. 17th-c social-commentary.
For someone today
Tukārām's advice: in a town where the people can't get along with one another, where there is no respect for sacred tradition, where factions and infighting are everywhere, and where the powerful harm good and bad people alike with no one to stop them, it is better to live happily alone in a cave than to stay there.
मराठी: तुकारामांचा सल्ला असा आहे: जिथे शहरातील लोक एकमेकांशी जुळवून घेत नाहीत, जिथे पुराणांचा आदर उरलेला नाही, जिथे ठिकठिकाणी गटबाजी आणि भांडणे सुरू असतात, आणि जिथे बेभान सत्ताधारी चांगल्या-वाईट सर्वांनाच त्रास देतात आणि कोणी थांबवणारे नसते — अशा नगरीत राहण्यापेक्षा एखाद्या गुहेत सुखाने राहणे कधीही बरे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's anti-bad-city; live-in-cave canonical advice
- 17th-c social-commentary on bad-governance