संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3912 of 4582

Abhanga 3912

Tukaram warns against effort with no real desire or purpose behind it, comparing it to storing seed you'll never plant or planting seed that's already roasted.

When you realize you're putting effort into something you don't actually want.

When you keep going through the motions of a habit or practice without any real intent behind it.

When you're preparing carefully for an outcome that you already know cannot happen.

The verse

सिंदळीसी नाहीं पोराची पैं आस । सांटविल्याबीजास काय करी ॥१॥ अथवा सेतीं बीज पेरिलें भाजोन । सारा देइल कोण काका त्याचा ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे नाहीं खायाची ते चाड । तरि कां लिगाड करुनी घेतोस ॥३॥

Literal translation

Sindḷī-no-āsa-of-son — pointless-stored-bīja. Roasted-seed-sown — who-reaps. Tukā: no-eating-chāḍa — why-make-ligaḍa.

What it means

A 3-verse earthy-proverb against-pointless-effort. The barren woman has no hope of a son — what use is the stored seed? Or, if you sow roasted seed in the field — who will reap its essence? If you have no urge to eat — then why take up the trouble?. Three rural-agrarian-images of means-without-ends. The ligaḍa (entanglement, troublesome-tangle) is Tukārām's word for the pointless-investment-in-effort-without-goal — applied here to ritual or sādhana done without bhāva (the eating is the bhāva, the seed is the practice).

For someone today

Tukaram uses simple farm images to make a sharp point about pointless effort. A woman with no hope of ever having a child gains nothing by hoarding seed for a future she doesn't have. A farmer who roasts his seed before sowing it will find no one comes to harvest anything from that field. If you have no real appetite for something, Tukaram asks, why tangle yourself up chasing it at all? The lesson is to be honest about whether your effort is actually connected to a real desire and a real outcome, instead of going through motions that lead nowhere.

मराठी: तुकाराम साध्या शेतीच्या उदाहरणांतून व्यर्थ प्रयत्नांबद्दल तीक्ष्ण मुद्दा मांडतात. ज्या स्त्रीला मूल होण्याची आशाच नाही तिने बी साठवून काय उपयोग? जो शेतकरी बी भाजून पेरतो त्या शेतातून कोणीही काही कापणी करायला येणार नाही. जर एखाद्या गोष्टीची खरी भूकच नाही, तर तिच्यामागे स्वतःला का गुंतवून घ्यायचे असे तुकाराम विचारतात. यातील धडा असा की आपला प्रयत्न खऱ्या इच्छेशी आणि खऱ्या फळाशी जोडलेला आहे की नाही हे प्रामाणिकपणे तपासावे, नाहीतर निष्फळ हालचाली करत राहू नयेत.

Where this applies

Tukārām's anti-pointless-effort earthy-proverb
ligaḍa (entanglement) for means-without-ends

Autobiographical