Experience, hypocrisy of the unrealized teacher
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हे ब्रह्मज्ञान बोलतां सिद्ध । जंव हा आत्मबोध नाहीं चित्तीं ॥1॥
काय करिसी वांयां लटिका चि पाल्हाळ । श्रम तो केवळ जाणिवेचा ॥ध्रु.॥
मी च देव ऐसें सांगसी या लोकां । विषयांच्या सुखा टोंकोनियां ॥2॥
अमृताची गोडी पुढिलां सांगसी। आपण उपवासी मरोनिया ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे जरि राहील तळमळ । ब्रह्म तें केवळ सदोदित ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Knowledge of Brahman is not attained merely by speaking of it, so long as the Self-awareness has not entered the chitta. Why do you indulge in empty elaboration? All that labor is nothing but the toil of cleverness. You tell people that you yourself are God while feasting on sense pleasures on the side. You describe the sweetness of nectar to others while you yourself starve and perish. Says Tuka, only if inner restlessness ceases does pure Brahman reveal itself, ever-present and complete.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Knowledge of Brahman is not perfected by talking about it, so long as Self-awareness has not entered the heart. Why waste yourself in false, empty elaboration? That labor is nothing but the toil of cleverness. You tell people: I myself am God, while on the side you feast on the pleasures of the senses. You describe to others the sweetness of nectar, while you yourself starve and die. Tuka says: only when the inner restlessness ceases is that pure Brahman ever-present and whole.
What it means
Tukaram attacks the gap between spiritual speech and spiritual experience. Brahman-knowledge spoken from the lips means nothing until Self-realization has actually entered the heart; the elaborate talk of one who lacks it is only the strain of cleverness. He sharpens this with two pictures of hypocrisy: the man who proclaims I am God while quietly indulging every sense pleasure, and the one who praises the taste of nectar to others while himself starving. The aim is not contempt for any particular teacher but a mirror for the listener to check whether his own knowing is lived or merely recited. The test he offers is internal: only when the restlessness of the mind stops does the pure, ever-present Brahman show itself. Words are no substitute for that stillness.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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