संत साहित्य
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संत साहित्य · Tukārām · Abhanga 3912 of 4582

Abhanga 3912

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

Tukārām: don't-take-trouble-without-a-real-end-purpose; stored-seed-roasted-no-progeny — pointless.

Where this applies

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