Abhanga 3573
The company and setting you are in shapes what is actually possible, so do not expect real understanding or growth from a place whose whole nature runs against it.
The verse
अभक्ताचे गांवीं साधु म्हणजे काय । व्याघ्रें वाडां गाय सांपडली ॥१॥
कसाबाचे आळी मांडिलें प्रमाण । बस्वणाची आण तया काईं ॥ध्रु.॥
केळी आणि बोरी वसती सेजारी । संवाद कोणे परी घडे येथें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे खीर केली का†हेळ्याची । शुद्ध गोडी कैची वसे तेथें ॥३॥
Literal translation
Abhaktāche gāmvīm sādhu mhaṇaje kāya — what is a sādhu in an abhakta's gāmva; vyāghre vāḍām gāya sāmpaḍalī — a cow caught in a tiger's wāḍā. Kasābāche āḷī māmḍilē pramāṇa — (what) pramāṇa is set up in a butcher's lane; basvaṇāchī āṇa tayā kāīm — what of Basavaṇṇā's āṇa there. Keḷī āṇi bōrī vasatī sējārī — banana and thorny-ber as neighbours; samvāda kōṇe parī ghaḍe yethe — what conversation occurs here. Tukā mhaṇe khīra kelī kāheḷyāchī — Tukā says: was kheer made of kohaḷā; śuddha gōḍī kaichī vase tethe — where does pure sweetness reside there.
What it means
A 4-verse bad-company text in concrete images. Sādhu-in-abhakta-village is like a-cow in a-tiger's-enclosure. In a butcher's lane, what is Basavaṇṇā's-vow worth? Banana-and-thorny-ber as neighbours — no real-conversation. Kohaḷā can't-yield kheer-sweetness. Each-image localizes the same teaching: incompatible-companies produce no exchange.
For someone today
Tukārām paints this through vivid, everyday images: a sādhu living among non-devotees is like a cow that's wandered into a tiger's den. In a butcher's lane, what use is anyone's vow of nonviolence? A banana plant and a thorny ber bush may grow side by side, but that doesn't mean any real exchange happens between them — and you can't make sweet kheer out of a bitter gourd. The lesson is to choose your company carefully: when natures are fundamentally incompatible, nothing grows between them except friction, or one simply consuming the other.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे रोजच्या साध्या प्रतिमांमधून सांगतात — अभक्तांच्या गावात राहणारा साधू म्हणजे जणू वाघाच्या गुहेत सापडलेली गाय. कसायाच्या गल्लीत अहिंसेच्या व्रताला काय किंमत उरते? केळ आणि बोरीचे झाड शेजारी उभे असले तरी त्यांच्यात खरा संवाद घडत नाही — आणि कारल्याची खीर केली तरी तिला शुद्ध गोडी कधीच येत नाही. तुकाराम सांगतात, आपली संगत जपून निवडा — जिथे स्वभावच परस्परविरोधी असतो, तिथे घर्षण किंवा एकमेकांना गिळून टाकण्याशिवाय काहीच घडत नाही.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's bad-company image-collection
- Companion to 2930 (anti-durjana-sanga) and 2836 (sajjana-sanga)