Devotion, feeling is the salt
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चित्तीं नाहीं तें जवळीं असोनि काय । वत्स सांडी माय तेणें न्यायें ॥१॥
प्रीतीचा तो वायु गोड लागे मात । जरी जाय चित्त मिळोनियां ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे अवघें फिकें भावाविण । मीठ नाहीं अन्न तेणें न्यायें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What good is nearness if the chitta is not in it? By that same logic, a mother cow abandons her calf. Sweet feels the talk of love, the breeze of affection, when the chitta merges wholly. Says Tuka, without bhava all is tasteless. By that same logic, food without salt.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is the use of being near someone if your heart is not in it? By that same logic, a mother cow would simply walk away from her calf. The talk of love is sweet, and the very breeze of affection is sweet, but only when one heart has merged into the other. Tuka says: without real feeling everything is flat and tasteless, the way food is when there is no salt in it.
What it means
Tukaram makes feeling, bhava, the one thing that gives devotion its savor. Physical nearness is empty if the heart is absent; presence without love is like a mother who feels nothing for the calf at her side. What makes the language of love sweet is not the words but the merging of one heart into another. And the homely closing image fixes it: bhava is the salt of the spiritual life. Without it, every practice, however correct, is bland and lifeless. With it, even simple things become delicious.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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