Abhanga 4370
Mere talk and word-knowledge, like a curry or rice made only of speech, can never satisfy or truly count as real understanding.
The verse
स्वप्नींच्या व्यवहारा काळांतर लेखा । जागृतीसि रुका गांठ नाहीं ॥१॥
तेवीं शब्दज्ञानें करिती चावटी । ज्ञान पोटासाटीं विकों नये ॥ध्रु.॥
बोलाची च कढी बोलाचा ची भात । जेवूनियां तृप्त कोण जाला ॥२॥
कागदीं लिहिली नांवाची साकर । चाटितां मधुर केवीं लागे ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे जळो जळो त्याचें ज्ञान। यमपुरी कोण दंड साहे ॥४॥
Literal translation
Dream-vyavahāra-different-time — no-rukā-knot-jāgrti. Śabda-jñāna-chāvaṭī — don't-sell-for-belly. Bōla-kaḍhī-bōla-bhāta — no-trpti. Sugar-on-paper — licking-not-sweet. Tukā: burn-burn-jñāna — Yama-puri-daṇḍa.
What it means
THE canonical 4-verse 5-image anti-rote-jñāna polemic. Dream-transactions belong to another time's account — in waking, no penny is tied. So word-knowledge becomes gossip; don't sell knowledge for one's belly. The curry of speech, the rice of speech — who got satisfied eating (these)? Sugar named-written on paper — how can it taste sweet when licked? Tukā says: let such knowledge burn, burn — who can bear the punishment of Yama-puri? The 5 images for empty-knowledge: (1) dream-money-vs-waking-pocket: dream-transactions have no real-money-equivalent; (2) selling-jñāna-for-belly: monetized-knowledge is gossip; (3) bōla-kaḍhī-bōla-bhāta: speech-curry-and-speech-rice never-satisfy-hunger; (4) sugar-on-paper: written-name-of-sugar isn't-sweet; (5) burn-burn + Yama-puri-daṇḍa: the result-of-such-knowledge. Pair with 4191 (anti-rote-artha-vihīna-pāṭha), 4257 (5-image instructional-futility), 4309 (5-anti-display).
For someone today
Tukaram compares dealings made in a dream to real waking life, saying that whatever you gain in a dream leaves no actual coin in your pocket once you wake up. In the same way, he warns that mere word-knowledge, talked about but never lived, becomes empty gossip, and real understanding should never be sold just to earn a living. He asks pointedly who has ever felt full after eating a curry made only of talk and rice made only of words, and who could taste sweetness by licking the word sugar written on paper. Tukaram is blunt that this kind of hollow, merely verbal knowledge is worthless and should simply be burned away, because talking about truth is not the same as living it.
मराठी: तुकाराम स्वप्नातल्या व्यवहाराची तुलना जागृत आयुष्याशी करतात, ते म्हणतात की स्वप्नात मिळालेलं काहीही जागं झाल्यावर खिशात खरं नाणं म्हणून राहत नाही. त्याचप्रमाणे, ते इशारा देतात की केवळ बोलण्यातलं ज्ञान, कधीच जगलं न गेलेलं, निव्वळ गप्पा ठरतं, आणि खरं ज्ञान पोटासाठी विकलं जाऊ नये. ते थेट विचारतात, बोलण्याने बनवलेल्या आमटीने आणि शब्दांच्या भाताने कोण कधी तृप्त झालं आहे, आणि कागदावर लिहिलेल्या साखर या शब्दाला चाटून गोडवा कसा लागेल. तुकाराम स्पष्टपणे सांगतात की असं पोकळ, केवळ शाब्दिक ज्ञान निरुपयोगी आहे आणि ते जाळून टाकावं, कारण सत्याबद्दल बोलणं म्हणजे ते जगणं नव्हे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's THE 5-image anti-rote-jñāna polemic canonical