Sumathi Sataka - Its relevance to modern living (8)

“Aakati udagani kadupunu

Vekatiyagu lanja padupu viduvani brathukun

Brakonna nuuti udakamu

Mekala padiyunu rota medini Sumathi”

This can be translated as

“A gluttonous person

A pregnant prostitute still continuing with her prostitution

Water from a well full of algae

Milk from goats are bad”

The literal meaning of the first line says a stomach for which hunger never stops. That is the owner of such a stomach goes on eating food never saying no. Such a situation is called gluttony or binge eating. Such kind of a person is like an animal who goes on eating unabated and is never satiated. The food habits of such a person appear bad to others. There is a story which signifies a similar situation in Sinbad’s Travels. In one of the travels, as usual Sindbad is shipwrecked and ends up in a particular island along with some other shipmates. The inhabitants were very kind give them some medicine. However Sinbad gets suspicious and did not take the medicine while his mates take it. After consuming the medicine they develop an insatiable hunger and goes on binge eating. Sinbad subsequently learns that his mates are being fed with food so that they can become fat and be killed by the islanders. That is by becoming gluttonous they ended up a food for others. The story further moves on to show how Sinbad escaped and returned to tell his adventure (naturally otherwise we will never be knowing this).

There is another meaning to this line. Gluttony is nothing but greed. A greedy person tries to grab whatever can be grabbed without any compunctions. Such persons are bad for the society. We have many examples of such persons in our history and can even see some in our day to day observations. Most of the dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Mohammad Gaddafi are greedy for power. This greed has ultimately brought disaster upon themselves.

Similarly a prostitute (a sex worker in current parlance) continuing even after becoming pregnant is a bad thing. Such a kind of sex is generally known as a variation of perversion.

The third line of the poem talks about a disused well full of water which turned green due to growth of algae. No one in his normal senses would like to drink water from such a well even if it is full to the brim. Such water is treated as bad. Similarly a person who is very wealthy but does not undertake to help others is generally avoided by others.

The last line talks about the milk of goat. Milk from goat has a distinct smell which is different from the milk from cows. Goat’s milk is generally avoided by people because of the smell.

All these things described in the four lines of the poem should be generally avoided by people.