Abhanga 259

The worth of something depends on the recipient's capacity to recognize it, so offer what you value most to those who can actually receive it, and let fellow devotees recognize the greatness of bhakti.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A don't-cast-pearls-before-swine abhang. Three image-clusters:

1. सोनियाचें ताट क्षीरीनें — श्वाना — gold plate of milk to dog. The vessel-and-content are valuable; the recipient does not know the value. The dog will eat the milk but not appreciate the gold-plate or the kṣīra-quality.

2. मुक्ताफळहार खरासि — कस्तुरी सुकराला — pearls to donkey, musk to pig. Costly-content, value-blind recipient. The donkey cannot wear the pearls as ornament; the pig cannot smell the musk as fragrance.

3. वेदपरायण बधिरा — veda-recitation to the deaf. The highest jñāna content delivered to a recipient who structurally-cannot-receive. The deaf person cannot hear the veda. Tukaram is not blaming the deaf (this is not about literal-deafness as moral-failure); he is naming the structural-mismatch.

4. तुका म्हणे ज्याचें तो चि एक जाणे — भक्तीचें महिमान साधु जाणे — only the one whose it is, knows; the bhakti-mahimā the sādhu knows. The closing-rule. Recognition-of-value requires capacity-for-it. The bhakti-mahimā (greatness-of-bhakti) is recognized by the sādhu; to others, it is gold-to-dog, pearls-to-donkey, musk-to-pig, veda-to-deaf. (Compare 245's anti-snobbery — upadeśa-from-any-hand — the receiver-side there; here, the recognition-side.)

[T]

For someone today

This abhang teaches that recognizing value takes a certain capacity, and that capacity isn't something you can hand over along with the gift. Fill a gold plate with rich milk and give it to a dog, and the dog will taste only the milk, never the gold; hang pearls on a donkey or offer musk to a pig, and neither creature can appreciate what it's been given. Reciting sacred wisdom to someone who is deaf to it isn't a moral failing on their part — it simply means the channel isn't open, and no amount of insistence will make the message land. So don't waste what matters most to you on someone who structurally can't receive it; the greatness of devotion is truly recognized only by those already capable of recognizing it, like a saint. Value lives in the recipient's ability to receive, not just in the offering itself.

मराठी: ही ओवी सांगते की एखाद्या गोष्टीचं मूल्य ओळखण्यासाठी विशिष्ट क्षमता लागते, आणि ती क्षमता भेटीबरोबर देताच येत नाही. सोन्याच्या ताटात दूध भरून कुत्र्याला दिलं, तर कुत्र्याला फक्त दूधच चाखता येईल, सोनं नाही; गाढवाच्या गळ्यात मोती घातले किंवा डुकराला कस्तुरी दिली, तरी त्या प्राण्यांना जे दिलं गेलं त्याची किंमतच कळत नाही. बहिऱ्या माणसाला वेदपठण ऐकवणं ही त्याची नैतिक चूक नाही — त्याचा अर्थ फक्त एवढाच की तो मार्गच बंद आहे, आणि कितीही आग्रह केला तरी तो संदेश पोहोचणार नाही. त्यामुळे जे तुम्हाला सर्वांत मौल्यवान वाटतं, ते ज्याला ते मुळातच घेता येत नाही अशा व्यक्तीवर वाया घालवू नका; भक्तीची महती खऱ्या अर्थाने तीच व्यक्ती ओळखते जिच्यात आधीच ती ओळखण्याची क्षमता असते, जसा एखादा साधू. मूल्य देण्यात नसतं, ते स्वीकारणाऱ्याच्या क्षमतेत असतं.

Where this applies

• Recognition requires capacity. Not in the offering, in the recipient.
• Don't waste costly-content on incapable-recipients. Practical rule.
• The sādhu knows the bhakti-mahimā. Find the right-receiver.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2374 — Rather than scattering devotion among many lesser deities who demand offerings, Tukaram sa
• Abhanga 2377 — This detailed meditation on Vitthal standing on a brick at Pandharpur, out of love for his
• Abhanga 2387 — Accept whatever life brings with reverence, and place the burden on God rather than carryi
• Abhanga 2402 — For today: happily take rebirths — IF among the Paṇḍharī-Vārkarīs ; Hari-dāsas' company is