Abhanga 3703
Real experience is close at hand and already ripened into taste, so there is no need to settle for borrowed words or raw imitation.
The verse
नव्हती हे उसणे बोल । आहाच फोल रंजवण ॥१॥
अनुभव तो वरावरी । नाहीं दुरी वेगळा ॥ध्रु.॥
पाहिजे तें आलें रुची । काचाकुची काशाची ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे लाजे आड । त्याची चाड कोणासी ॥३॥
Literal translation
Not-usaṇē-bōla — āhācha-fōla-rañjavaṇa. Anubhava-vara-varī — not-durī-vēgaḷā. What-needed-came-to-ruchi — no-kāchā-kuchī-of-other. Tukā: under-lāja — whose-chāḍa-for-that.
What it means
A 3-verse text. These are not borrowed-words, not idle hollow-amusement; anubhava is right-here, not far or separate; what's needed has come to taste — no raw-fragments of anything-else; under shame, who has a longing for that?
For someone today
Tukārām insists that what he speaks is not borrowed talk or hollow entertainment picked up from somewhere else. Real experience, he says, is right here on the surface, close at hand, not something distant or separate from you that you have to go searching for. What was truly needed has already ripened into taste, into something felt directly, so why settle for raw, unfinished fragments borrowed from someone else's understanding. It is a reminder to trust your own direct experience over secondhand words, and to feel a little shame in chasing after imitation instead of the real thing.
मराठी: तुकाराम ठामपणे सांगतात की ते जे बोलतात ते कुठूनतरी उसने घेतलेले बोल किंवा पोकळ करमणूक नाही. खरा अनुभव, ते म्हणतात, अगदी वरवर, हाताशीच आहे, तो काही दूरचा किंवा वेगळा शोधावा लागणारा नाही. जे खरोखर हवे होते ते आधीच पिकून चवीला आले आहे, प्रत्यक्ष अनुभवाला आले आहे, मग दुसऱ्याच्या कच्च्या, अपुऱ्या तुकड्यांवर का समाधान मानायचे. हा एक स्मरणकर्ता आहे की उसन्या शब्दांपेक्षा स्वतःच्या प्रत्यक्ष अनुभवावर विश्वास ठेवा, आणि खऱ्या गोष्टीऐवजी नकलेच्या मागे धावण्यात थोडी लाज वाटू द्या.
Where this applies
- When you catch yourself repeating spiritual talk secondhand instead of speaking from your own experience
- When you assume real understanding is far away and hard to reach, instead of noticing it right in front of you
- When you settle for a rough, unfinished version of something instead of waiting for it to fully ripen
- When you feel the pull to imitate someone else's words rather than trust what you have actually felt yourself