Abhanga 4387
Some things are sacred precisely because they cannot be sold, and turning devotion into a paid transaction corrupts both the person who sells it and those who accept it.
The verse
कीर्तनाचा विकरा मातेचें गमन । भाड खाईं धन विटाळ तो ॥१॥
हरिभक्ताचि माता हे हरिगुणकीर्ति । इजवर पोट भरिती चांडाळ ते ॥ध्रु.॥
अंत्यज हा ऐसें कल्पांतीं करीना । भाड हे खाईंना जननीची ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे त्याचें दर्शन ही खोटें । पूर्वजांसि नेटें नरका धाडी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Kīrtana-vikarā = mātr-gamana — bhāḍa-eats viṭāḷa-money. Hari-bhakta's-mother-is-Hari-guṇa-kīrti — eating-on-her = chāṇḍāḷas. Antya-ja-doesn't-eat-jananī's-bhāḍa-even-in-kalpānta. Tukā: even-darśana-khōṭa — drives-pūrvajas-to-naraka.
What it means
THE MAJOR most-severe anti-monetized-kīrtana invocation in the Gathā. Selling kīrtana is incest-with-mother — eating fee as money is pollution. The Hari-devotee's mother is the recital-of-Hari's-virtues — those who fill their belly on her are outcastes-in-conduct. Even an untouchable doesn't do such an act at the end-of-aeon — doesn't eat his own-mother's prostitute-fee. Tukā says: even seeing such a person is harmful — it forcefully drives the ancestors to hell. The triple-severity: 1. kīrtana-vikarā = mātr-gamana — the most-extreme moral-equivalence-image in the entire Gathā 2. Hari-guṇa-kīrti is the bhakta's mother — making the metaphor explicit 3. Even an antya-ja doesn't do this — inverting caste-hierarchy: the conventional-untouchable is morally-superior to the monetized-kīrtanakāra 4. Even darśana drives ancestors to naraka — pūrva-ja-soteriological-damage
Pair with 3074 (anti-monetized-kīrtana ethics 4-rule code), 4356 (anti-Brahmin-elitism + Name-replaces-rituals).
For someone today
Tukaram delivers one of his harshest warnings here, saying that turning kirtana, the singing of God's praise, into something you sell for money is as deep a betrayal as violating your own mother, because taking payment for it pollutes what should never be for sale. He explains the image directly: the recitation of Hari's virtues is itself like a devotee's mother, so anyone who profits from it is living in a way he calls truly disgraceful. He points out that even a person at the very bottom of the social order would never do something this low, not even take money earned by exploiting his own mother. Tukaram's point is not really about caste or purity codes but about integrity, that some things are sacred precisely because they cannot be monetized, and turning them into income corrupts both the person doing it and everyone who witnesses it approvingly.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे त्यांच्या सर्वात कठोर इशाऱ्यांपैकी एक देतात — कीर्तन, म्हणजे हरिनामाचे गुणगान, ते पैशासाठी विकणे हे स्वतःच्या आईशी विश्वासघात करण्याइतके गंभीर आहे, कारण त्यासाठी मोबदला घेणे म्हणजे जे कधीच विकायला नसावे त्याला विटाळणे होय. ते हे रूपक स्पष्ट करतात: हरिगुणांचे कीर्तन हेच भक्ताची आई आहे, त्यामुळे जो त्यावर पोट भरतो तो खरोखर लांछनास्पद जीवन जगतो असे ते म्हणतात. ते सांगतात की समाजातील सर्वात खालच्या स्तरावरचा माणूसही असे कधीच करणार नाही, आपल्या आईकडून मिळवलेला पैसा घेणार नाही. तुकारामांचा मुद्दा जातीबद्दल किंवा शुद्धतेच्या नियमांबद्दल नसून सचोटीबद्दल आहे — काही गोष्टी पवित्र असतातच कारण त्या विकल्या जाऊ शकत नाहीत, आणि त्यांचे उत्पन्नात रूपांतर करणे ते करणाऱ्याला आणि त्याला मान्यता देणाऱ्या प्रत्येकाला भ्रष्ट करते.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's MAJOR kīrtana-vikarā = mātr-gamana most-severe anti-monetized-kīrtana canonical