Abhanga 3560
Real love and inner knowing cannot be transmitted through words, they pass directly between hearts the way a turtle's young grow from a gaze alone, so trust your own inner sense rather than always seeking outside confirmation.
The verse
प्रेम नये सांगतां बोलतां दावितां । अनुभव चित्ता चित्त जाणे ॥१॥
कासवीचें बाळ वाढे कृपादृष्टी । दुधा नाहीं भेटी अंगसंगें ॥ध्रु.॥
पोटामध्यें कोण सांगितलें सर्पां । उपजत लपा म्हणऊनि ॥२॥
बोलों नेणें परी जाणे गोड क्षार । अंतरीं विचार त्यासी ठावा ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे बरें विचारावें मनीं । आणिक भल्यांनी पुसों नये ॥४॥
Literal translation
Prema naye sāngatām bōlatām dāvitām — prema doesn't come by telling, speaking, showing; anubhava chitta chitta jāṇe — anubhava — chitta knows chitta. Kāsavīche bāḷa vāḍhe krpā-drṣṭī — turtle's young grows by krpā-drṣṭi; dudhā nāhīm bhēṭī anga-sange — no meeting with milk, no body-contact. Pōṭāmadhye kōṇa sāngitale sarpām — upajata lapā mhaṇaūnī — who told serpents in womb to hide from-birth. Bōlōm neṇe parī jāṇe gōḍa kṣāra — (some) cannot speak yet know sweet-and-bitter; amtarīm vichāra tyāsī ṭhāvā — the vichāra within is known to him. Tukā mhaṇe bare vichārāve manīm — Tukā says: consider well in mind; āṇika bhalyāmnī pusōm naye — don't ask the wise either.
What it means
A canonical 4-verse text on anubhava. Prema cannot be transmitted by-speech-or-demonstration; chitta-knows-chitta directly. As the turtle's young grow by a gaze-of-grace (not by milk-contact), and serpents-in-the-womb know-to-hide without instruction, and some-beings-who-cannot-speak still-know sweet-from-bitter — the inner-viveka is self-known. Don't ask even the wise; consider in your own-mind.
For someone today
Tukārām says some things simply can't be handed over through talk — love, faith, real inner knowing. Like a turtle's young, who are said to grow strong from their mother's gaze alone rather than any touch or feeding, prema passes directly from one heart to another beyond speech. Even serpents inside the womb somehow know to hide the moment they're born, without anyone teaching them; that same wordless knowing lives in you too. So trust what your own heart quietly recognizes, Tukārām says — don't even bother asking the wise to confirm it for you.
मराठी: तुकाराम म्हणतात की काही गोष्टी शब्दांतून, सांगण्यातून किंवा दाखवण्यातून कधीच पोहोचत नाहीत — प्रेम, श्रद्धा, आंतरिक जाण या त्यातल्याच. कासवीचे पिल्लू जसे केवळ आईच्या कृपादृष्टीने वाढते, दुधाच्या स्पर्शाशिवाय, तसेच प्रेमही एका चित्तातून दुसऱ्या चित्तात शब्दांविना पोहोचते. सर्पाचे पिल्लूही जन्मताच लपायला शिकते, कोणी न शिकवता — तीच अबोल जाण आपल्यातही असते. म्हणून तुकाराम सांगतात, स्वतःच्या मनाचा कौल घ्या — त्यासाठी शहाण्यांनाही विचारण्याची गरज नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's prema-is-anubhava; chitta-knows-chitta; turtle-young-by-gaze canonical
- Companion to 2949 (maithuna-analogy — anubhava-vs-śābdika)