Devotion, knowledge needs devotion to be whole
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गोड नांवें क्षीर । परी साकरेचा धीर ॥1॥
तैसें जाणा ब्रह्मज्ञान । बापुडें तें भक्तीविण ॥ध्रु.॥
रुची नेदी अन्न । ज्यांत नसतां लवण ॥2॥
अंधळ्याचे श्रम । शिकविल्याचें चि नाम ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तारा । नाव तंबुयाच्या सारा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Milk is called sweet, but sugar brings it to perfection. Know that Brahman-knowledge without devotion is just as incomplete. Food without salt gives no pleasure. The efforts of the blind are toil in name only, mere rote learning. Says Tuka, steer the boat with the rudder of devotion and carry it safely across.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Milk is called sweet, but it is sugar that gives it its strength. Know that knowledge of Brahman is like this: poor and helpless without devotion. Food gives no taste when there is no salt in it. The toil of the blind man is effort in name only, learning by rote what he was told. Tuka says: steer the boat, carry it across with the rudder of devotion.
What it means
Through a string of homely images, milk needing sugar, food needing salt, a boat needing a rudder, Tukaram makes one point: knowledge of Brahman is incomplete and even helpless on its own, and devotion is what completes it. The image of the blind man's toil names the danger of doctrine without love; it becomes mere recitation of what one was told, effort that goes nowhere. He is not dismissing knowledge but insisting it needs the thing that gives it savor and direction. The closing rudder image makes devotion not a decoration on knowledge but the very means by which one is carried across.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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