Abhanga 3570
Reciting words and winning arguments proves nothing if there is no real faith underneath, genuine devotion is a matter of the heart, not of clever debate.
The verse
नाहीं देवाचा विश्वास । करी संतांचा उपहास ॥१॥
त्याचे तोंडी पडे माती । हीन शूकराची जाती ॥ध्रु.॥
घोकुनी अक्षर । वाद छळणा करीत फिरे ॥२॥
म्हणे देवासी पाषाण । तुका म्हणे भावहीन ॥३॥
Literal translation
Nāhīm devācā viśvāsa — no faith-in-Deva; karī samtāmchā upahāsa — makes mockery of sants. Tyāche tōmḍī paḍe mātī — dust falls in his mouth; hīna śūkarāchī jātī — lowly pig-class. Ghōkunī akṣara — mumbling letters; vāda chhaḷaṇā karīta phire — goes about in debate-and-derision. Mhaṇe devāsī pāṣāṇa — says to Deva: stone; Tukā mhaṇe bhāvahīna — Tukā says: bhāva-hīna.
What it means
A 3-verse anti-scoffer indictment. One-who-mocks-sants and-calls-the-deity-a-mere-stone, who-goes-around debating and deriding by-his-akṣara-mumbling — is bhāva-hīna; dust-in-his-mouth; of-lowly-śūkara-jāti. The harshest of Tukārām's social-protest registers — naming the scoffer as a debased-class.
For someone today
Tukārām argues that a devotee and a scoffer can never really meet on the ground of clever debate. Someone who has no real faith in God mocks the sants and dismisses the deity as a mere stone, going around picking arguments while merely mumbling scripture by rote. What such a person lacks isn't knowledge of the words — it's bhāva, real faith of the heart, and no amount of debate can substitute for that.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे सांगतात की भक्त आणि टिंगल करणारा कधीही केवळ वादविवादाच्या पातळीवर एकत्र येऊ शकत नाहीत. ज्याला देवावर श्रद्धाच नाही, तो संतांची टवाळी करतो आणि देवाला केवळ दगड म्हणतो, अक्षरे घोकत वाद-विवाद आणि छळणा करत फिरतो. अशा माणसाची उणीव शब्दज्ञानाची नसते — ती खऱ्या भावाची, अंतःकरणाच्या श्रद्धेची असते, आणि कोणताही वाद ती भरून काढू शकत नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's bhāva-hīna-scoffer; calls-Deva-stone anti-scoffer indictment
- Companion to 2962 (anti-fake-guru polemic)