संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3666 of 4582

Abhanga 3666

Knowledge that never changes you, and endless clever argument, keep you from actually tasting the truth you claim to be seeking.

When you notice knowledge piling up without ever actually changing how someone lives.

When winning an argument becomes more important than understanding what it was really about.

When you realize constant debating is keeping someone from actually experiencing the truth.

The verse

एक परि बहिर बरें । परि तीं ढोरें ग्यानगडें ॥१॥ कपाळास लागली अगी । अभागी कां जीतसे ॥ध्रु.॥ एक परि बरें वेडें । तार्किक कुडें जळो तें ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे खातडवासी । अमृतासी नोळखे ॥३॥

Literal translation

One-kind-better-deaf — though-ḍhōra-gyāna-gaḍa. Kapāḷa-has-agi — abhāgī-why-still-live. One-kind-better-mad — tārkika-kuḍa-burn. Tukā: khātaḍa-vāsī-doesn't-recognize-amrta.

What it means

A sharp 3-verse anti-logician polemic. Better deaf than a knowledge-burdened beast; the fire is on his forehead — why does the unfortunate still live? Better mad than a tārkika's rotten-state — let it burn. The dweller-in-disputation can't recognize amrta. Companion to 3469 (anti-ghaṭa-paṭa-debates), 3591 (anti-philosophical-shopping).

For someone today

Tukaram fires off a sharp criticism of people who carry piles of knowledge but never actually let it change them, saying it would almost be better to be deaf than to be burdened that way. He is blunt about it: someone caught endlessly in clever argument, forever debating instead of experiencing, is missing the very sweetness that all that talk is supposed to be about. Real understanding, he insists, is not the same as winning debates. Someone who lives inside constant disputation never actually tastes the truth they claim to be arguing over.

मराठी: तुकाराम अशा माणसांवर तीव्र टीका करतात जे भरपूर ज्ञान बाळगतात पण त्यामुळे स्वतःत काहीही बदल घडवत नाहीत, त्यांच्यापेक्षा बहिरे असणे बरे असे ते म्हणतात. ते स्पष्टच सांगतात, जो माणूस सतत हुशारीने वाद घालत राहतो, अनुभवण्याऐवजी फक्त बोलत राहतो, तो त्या सगळ्या बोलण्यामागची खरी गोडी गमावतो. खरे आकलन म्हणजे वाद जिंकणे नव्हे असे ते ठामपणे सांगतात. सतत वादविवादात जगणारा माणूस ज्या सत्याविषयी वाद घालतो त्याची खरी चव कधीच चाखत नाही.

Where this applies

When you notice someone piling up knowledge without letting it actually change how they live
When you get so caught up winning an argument that you forget what the discussion was really about
When clever debate replaces genuine understanding or lived experience
When you realize a person constantly arguing never actually tastes the truth they claim to defend

Autobiographical