Experience, feeling over cleverness
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शाहाणपणें वेद मुका । गोपिका त्या ताकटी ॥1॥
कैसें येथें कैसें तेथें । शहाणे ते जाणती ॥ध्रु.॥
यज्ञमुखें खोडी काढी । कोण गोडी बोरांची ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भावाविण । अवघा सीण केला होय ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Through cleverness the Vedas were left speechless, while the simple milkmaids of Gokul won the Lord with mere buttermilk. The wise understand how things work here and how they work there. One who finds fault with rituals cannot know the sweetness of wild berries. Says Tuka, without true feeling, all effort is nothing but weary toil.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By cleverness the Vedas were left dumb, while the milkmaids won him with mere buttermilk. How it works here, how it works there, only the wise know. The one who picks faults with his mouth cannot taste the sweetness of the berries. Tuka says: without true feeling, all the effort is only wasted toil.
What it means
Tukaram sets devotion above intellect by holding two pictures side by side. Cleverness pushed the Vedas to the end of their speech, yet the simple milkmaids of Gokul won Krishna with nothing more than buttermilk, because they had love and not argument. The fault-finder, busy criticizing rituals and others, never tastes the sweetness, like someone who talks down humble berries and so never knows how good they are. The plain conclusion is that without real heart-feeling all the spiritual labor in the world is just weariness, and that feeling is what the wise have understood.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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