Tukaram, Poem 2471

If comforts be ministered to a mad man, what pleasure can they give him? Like lights dancing before a blind man, such is the worship of God without devotion. A scarecrow is set to guard a field; its head is coloured with lime; in the end the owner complains that his crops have been eaten—“Good sir, don’t you know the mistake you made at first?” What avails it to preach a Purana to the deaf? To set dainties before the diseased? What can a woman fair as a lotus do for an impotent man? A speech falls flat on one who has no taste for it. What could a man without hands and feet do if these were requisite fruit on a tree? The fruit will not move to him; he is agitated in vain. Like such are those simpletons who lack faith, says Tuka.