Abhanga 4257
Adhama's-chitta-ahankārī — upadeśa-sīṇa.
The verse
अधमाचें चत्ति अहंकारीं मन । उपदेश शीण तया केला ॥१॥
पापियाचें मन न करी आचार । विधवे शृंगार व्यर्थ केला ॥ध्रु.॥
अधमाचें चत्ति दुश्चित्त ऐकेना । वांयां सीण मना करूं काय ॥२॥
गर्धबासी दिली चंदनाची उटी । केशर लल्हाटीं शुकराच्या॥३॥
पतिवंचकेसी सांगतां उदंड । परि तें पाषांड तिचे मनीं ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे तैसें अभावीं सांगतां । वाउगा चि चित्ति सीण होय ॥५॥
Literal translation
Adhama's-chitta-ahankārī — upadeśa-sīṇa. Pāpī-doesn't-do-ācāra — widow-śrngāra-vyartha. Adhama-doesn't-listen — vāuga-sīṇa. Donkey-chandana-uṭi — pig-saffron-forehead. Pativamchakā-told-much — thinks-pāṣāṇḍa. Tukā: telling-abhāvī — vaugā-sīṇa-in-chitti.
What it means
★★ THE canonical 5-image instructional-futility polemic. The adhama's heart — the mind is proud; to give him instruction is fatigue. The sinner's mind doesn't do right-conduct; making ornament-decoration on a widow is useless. The adhama's heart doesn't listen; in-vain is fatigue to the mind — what to do? Giving sandalwood-paste-application to a donkey; applying saffron to a pig's forehead. Telling the faithless-wife much — but in her mind it's taken as heresy. Tukā says: thus, telling the faithless — just-uselessly fatigue happens in the heart. The 5-image diagnostic of futile-instruction: (1) widow-with-śrngāra (widowed-women didn't wear ornaments in 17th-c Marathi-Brahmin culture — culturally-anachronistic gesture); (2) donkey-given-chandana-uṭi (waste-of-precious-sandal); (3) pig-saffron-on-forehead (waste-of-precious-saffron); (4) faithless-wife-told-much (interpreted as heresy); (5) generalization to abhāvī-instruction. Standard early-modern Marathi list. Pair with 4202 (gavhāra-jñāna-rajōguṇa), 4196 (santas-vimukha-sanga).
For someone today
Tukārām: telling-the-faithless-is-like-putting-sandal-on-a-donkey-or-saffron-on-a-pig — vaugā-sīṇa, just-wasted-effort-in-the-heart.
Where this applies
- ★★ Tukārām's THE 5-image instructional-futility polemic canonical