Abhanga 3560
Prema naye sāngatām bōlatām dāvitām — prema doesn't come by telling, speaking, showing; anubhava chitta chitta jāṇe — anubhava — chitta knows chitta.
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
Some things are not transferable by talk — love, faith, an inner-knowing. They grow by a-gaze, by a presence. Consult-your-own-chitta; the wise's-opinion is not the criterion.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's prema-is-anubhava; chitta-knows-chitta; turtle-young-by-gaze canonical
- Companion to 2949 (maithuna-analogy — anubhava-vs-śābdika)