Self-inquiry, words against the root
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पुसावें तें ठाई आपुल्या आपण । अहंकारा शून्य घालूनियां ॥1॥
येर वाग्जाळ मायेचा अहंकार । वचनाशीं थार अज्ञान तें ॥ध्रु.॥
फळ तें चि बीज बीज तें ची फळ । उपनांवें मूळ न पालटे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अवघे गव्हांचे प्रकार । सोनें अलंकार मिथ्या नांव ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Ask yourself, within yourself, having emptied the ego. All other verbal webs are the ego of Maya. Such wordiness is a shelter for ignorance. The fruit is the seed, and the seed is the fruit; at the root, the names change nothing. Says Tuka, all are forms of wheat. Gold and its ornaments bear different names, but the substance is one.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Ask the thing where it lives, in yourself, by yourself. First empty out the ego. Everything else is a tangle of words; it is the ego of Maya. Such wordiness is only a hiding place for ignorance. The fruit is the seed, and the seed is the fruit. The names change, but the root does not change. Tuka says: it is all forms of wheat. Gold and its ornaments carry different names, but the substance is one; the names are false.
What it means
Tukaram is telling the seeker where the real question gets answered and what blocks it. The answer lies within, but only after the ego has been set aside; as long as it remains, all the clever talk is just Maya wearing the mask of words, a shelter where ignorance can hide. He drives the point home with two images. Fruit and seed are one thing under two names, and gold stays gold whether you call it a bangle or a chain; the labels shift while the substance never does. So he is warning against mistaking the changing names for the unchanging reality, and against using argument as a substitute for emptying the self.
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