Abhanga 3690
Real growth, like a seed becoming fruit, needs patient restraint and care, while chasing quick shallow pleasures over true values only leads to suffering mistaken for happiness.
The verse
बीजीं फळाचा भरवसा । जतन सिंचनासरिसा । चाविलिया आसा । काकुलती ते नाड ॥१॥
हा तों गडसंदीचा ठाव । पिके पिकविला भाव । संकोचोनि जीव । दशा केली जतन ॥ध्रु.॥
माती घाली धनावरी । रांडा रोटा वरीवरी । सुखाचे सेजारीं । दुःख भ्रमें भोगीतसे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे दिशाभुली । जाल्या उफराटी चाली । निवाडाची बोली । अनुभवें साक्षीसी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Seed-trust-of-fruit — jatana-simchana-equal — biting-āsā-kākulatī-trap. Gaḍa-sandī-secret-place — bhāva-ripens-restraining-jīva-daśā-careful. Mātī-on-dhana — rāṇḍā-rōṭa-on-top — sukha-neighbor-bhrama-duḥkha. Tukā: diśā-bhulī-upside-down-gait — nivāḍā-in-anubhava-as-sākṣī.
What it means
A 4-verse practical-critique with farming-and-social images. In the seed is the trust of the fruit — care and watering equal; attached longing is the trap. This is a citadel-secret-place; the ripening-bhāva ripens by restraining the jīva. (People) put earth on dhana (bury-wealth); rāṇḍā-rōṭa (quick-pleasures: prostitute-and-bread) on top; sukha's-neighbor — by bhrama enjoying duḥkha. Tukā: directional-confusion gives upside-down-gait; verdict is in anubhava as witness.
For someone today
Tukaram uses the image of a seed to make his point, the trust that fruit will eventually come depends on steady care and watering over time, not on biting into the fruit before it has even grown, which is really just an anxious, grasping trap. Real inner growth is like a hidden, protected place, something that ripens slowly by holding the restless mind in check rather than letting it run wild. He points out how people bury their true wealth, their real values, under the ground and pile up quick, shallow pleasures on top instead, mistaking those cheap thrills for happiness while actually living out suffering under an illusion. He calls this a kind of directional confusion that makes a person walk through life backwards, and says the real verdict on any of this only comes from direct lived experience as the witness.
मराठी: तुकाराम बीजाच्या प्रतिमेचा वापर करून सांगतात की फळ मिळेल हा विश्वास सतत काळजी आणि पाण्याच्या नियमित पुरवठ्यावर अवलंबून असतो, न पिकलेल्या फळाला घाईघाईने चावण्यावर नाही, जो खरे तर एक अस्वस्थ, हपापलेला सापळाच आहे. खरी आंतरिक वाढ ही एका जपलेल्या, लपलेल्या ठिकाणासारखी असते, जी अस्वस्थ मनाला आवर घालूनच हळूहळू पिकते, ते मोकाट सोडून नाही. ते सांगतात की लोक आपली खरी संपत्ती, खरी मूल्ये, जमिनीत गाडून टाकतात आणि त्यावर क्षणभंगुर, वरवरची सुखे रचतात, त्या स्वस्त आनंदालाच खरे सुख समजून, प्रत्यक्षात भ्रमात राहून दुःखच भोगत असतात. याला ते एक प्रकारची दिशाभूल म्हणतात, ज्यामुळे माणूस आयुष्यभर उलट्या दिशेने चालतो, आणि म्हणतात की याचा खरा निवाडा फक्त प्रत्यक्ष अनुभवातूनच, साक्षीरूपाने, समजतो.
Where this applies
- When you want quick results instead of patiently nurturing something worthwhile over time
- When you chase cheap, shallow pleasures instead of investing in what truly matters to you
- When you mistake temporary excitement for real happiness and only later realize it was suffering in disguise
- When you trust your own lived experience to reveal the truth rather than taking anyone's word for it