संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 4234 of 4582

Abhanga 4234

No outward badge of caste, ritual, or status can replace genuine inner purity, and clinging to sense pleasures or pride will eventually expose and undo you.

When you lean on status or ritual correctness to look respectable while your real conduct falls short.

When you judge someone by their caste or family name instead of their actual character.

When pride creeps in after you have done something good, and you need to catch it.

The verse

विषयांचे लोलिंगत । ते फजीत होतील ॥१॥ न सरे येथें यातिकुळ । शुद्ध मूळबीज व्हावें ॥ध्रु.॥ शिखासूत्र सोंग वरि । दुराचारी दंड पावे ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे अभिमाना । नारायणा न सोसे ॥३॥

Literal translation

Viṣayāñce lōlingata — clingers to viṣaya; te fajīta hōtīla — they will be fajīta. Na sare yethe yāti-kuḷa — yāti-kuḷa doesn't count here; śuddha mūla-bīja hvāve — śuddha mūla-bīja must be. Śikhā-sūtra sōnga vari — top-knot-thread, only outward show; durāchārī damḍa pāve — durāchārī receives daṇḍa. Tukā mhaṇe abhimānā — Tukā says: abhimāna; Nārāyaṇā na sōse — Nārāyaṇa doesn't tolerate.

What it means

A 3-verse anti-fake-renunciate polemic. Sense-cling-fajīta; caste-doesn't-survive-here; pure-root-seed-needed; outward-show-useless; pride-not-tolerated.

For someone today

Tukaram warns that anyone who stays attached to sense pleasures will eventually be exposed and shamed, no matter how respectable they appear. He says that in matters of the spirit, caste and family status do not count for anything, what matters is a truly pure root within you. Wearing the top-knot and sacred thread of a priest is only outward show, and someone who behaves badly underneath that costume still receives real consequences for it. Above all, he says God does not tolerate pride. The lesson is that no external badge of status or ritual correctness can substitute for genuine inner purity and humility.

मराठी: तुकाराम सावध करतात की जो कोणी विषयसुखांना चिकटून राहतो, तो कितीही प्रतिष्ठित दिसला तरी अखेर उघडा पडतो आणि लज्जित होतो. ते म्हणतात की आध्यात्मिक बाबतीत जात आणि कुळाचा दर्जा काहीच कामाचा नाही, महत्त्वाचे आहे ते अंतरातले खरे शुद्ध मूळ. शेंडी आणि जानवे घालणे हा फक्त बाह्य देखावा आहे, आणि त्या वेषाच्या आत जो दुराचारी वागतो त्याला त्याचे फळ भोगावेच लागते. सर्वात महत्त्वाचे म्हणजे, ते सांगतात की देव गर्व सहन करत नाही. दर्जाचा किंवा विधीच्या शुद्धतेचा कोणताही बाह्य बिल्ला खऱ्या अंतरीच्या शुद्धतेची आणि नम्रतेची जागा घेऊ शकत नाही हाच यातील बोध आहे.

Where this applies

Tukārām's anti-fake-renunciate polemic

Anti-hypocrisy