गतानुगतिको लोको न लोकः पारमार्थिकः ।
पिण्डद्वयप्रदानेन गतं मे ताम्रभाजनम् ॥
gatānugatiko lokaḥ na loko pāramārthikaḥ |
piṇḍa-dvaya-pradānena gataṁ me tāmra-bhājanam ||
(Unknown source)
“People are imitative [i.e., they tend to follow what those before them have done]. People are not [even] interested in the greater significance [of the actions they or others perform]. My copper vessel is gone [just] because of making two mounds [of sand]!”
Commentary
Once upon a time, an educated brāhmaṇa went out from his home to perform his morning rites on the bank of the Gaṅgā while on his way to attend to some duties he had in a nearby town. After completing his rites, he buried his copper vessel in the sand to hide it because he did not want to carry it around with him while in town. So that he would be able to recover it when he returned in the afternoon on his way home, he made two mounds of sand above the spot where he buried the vessel. Others bathing in the river at that time observed this and thought that burying one’s vessel and making mounds of sand above it must be some sort of special ritual that produces some sort of favorable result for the performer since this educated brāhmaṇa had done it. So, they also did the same. When the brāhmaṇa returned in the afternoon, he saw pairs of mounds of sand like the mounds he had made all along the riverbank and thus was unable to recover his vessel. Dismayed at such superstitiousness and feeling world-weary, he spoke the aforementioned verse, wherein he makes a play on the word gata [i.e., “gone”]: because most people are gata-anugatikas, lit., “goers after (anugatikas) that which has gone (gata),” meaning, because people tend to follow the way they have seen others act without understanding the purpose and consequences of those actions, my copper vessel is now “gone” (gata)!
An alternate version of this verse can also be found, and it is presented here with looser translation:
गतानुगतिको लोकः न लोको पारमार्थिकः।
बालुकालिङ्गमात्रेण गतम्मे ताम्रभाजनम् ॥
gatānugatiko lokaḥ na loko pāramārthikaḥ |
bālukā-liṅga-mātreṇa gataṁ me tāmra-bhājanam ||
“People just copy other people. They do not even care about anything of real significance. My copper vessel is lost [just] because of the mark [I made] in the sand!”
Some also interpret the word liṅga, rendered above as “mark,” to refer to a Śiva-liṅga. Read in this way, the verse becomes even more pointedly a satire of the prevalent tendency in people to blindly follow religious practices they see others performing without understanding the meaning and purpose of these practices.
An alternate story can also be told to set the scene of the expression:
Once upon a time, a wandering sādhu whose only possession was a copper vessel reached the bank of a river early in the morning. After bathing, he intended to sit in a nearby grove to meditate. He didn’t want any worry of his copper vessel being stolen to disturb his meditation, so he buried the vessel in the sand for safekeeping. To be able to identify the place where he buried the vessel when he returned later, and also to ensure that the site remained undisturbed, he made a Śiva-liṅga out of sand at the site and placed some bel leaves and flowers atop it so that people would avoid stepping on the site out of respect for Bhagavān Śiva.
When he returned later in the day, he was surprised to see that all along the riverbank numerous Śiva-liṅgas had been made with sand and offered worship with bel leaves and flowers just as he had done. He immediately inferred that while he had been meditating, other people visiting the river bank had seen the Śiva-liṅga, assumed there was some tradition of worshipping Bhagavān Śiva in this way at this site or on this particular day, and then built liṅgams just as he had on the assumption that it would be beneficial for them to also perform such worship. Slightly frustrated at losing his sole possession because of such credulousness and indiscrimination, he spoke the aforementioned verse.