Inner experience, beyond telling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रेम नये सांगतां बोलतां दावितां । अनुभव चित्ता चित्त जाणे ॥1॥
कासवीचें बाळ वाढे कृपादृष्टी । दुधा नाहीं भेटी अंगसंगें ॥ध्रु.॥
पोटामध्यें कोण सांगितलें सर्पां । उपजत लपा ह्मणऊनि ॥2॥
बोलों नेणें परी जाणे गोड क्षार । अंतरीं विचार त्यासी ठावा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे बरें विचारावें मनीं । आणिक भल्यांनी पुसों नये ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Love cannot be conveyed by telling, speaking, or showing; only the chitta knows the chitta through direct experience. A turtle's offspring grows by the mother's gaze alone, without the touch of milk. Who taught the serpent inside the egg? It hides by its very nature from birth. A child cannot speak yet knows sweet from sour; the power of discernment dwells within. Says Tuka, reflect upon this carefully in your own mind and do not ask others for confirmation.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Love cannot be passed on by telling, by speaking, by showing. Only one heart knows another heart, through experience itself. The turtle's young grow by the mother's gaze alone; they never touch her milk. Who taught the serpent inside the egg to hide from the moment it is born? A child cannot yet speak, yet it knows sweet from sour; the power to tell them apart sits within. Tuka says: weigh this well in your own mind, and do not go asking good people to confirm it.
What it means
Tukaram is saying that the love of God, and the knowing that comes with it, cannot be handed over from outside; it is recognized only from within. His images all point one way: the baby turtle nourished by the mother's look without ever feeding, the serpent that hides by instinct at birth, the infant who tastes sweet and sour before it can name them. None of these were taught; the knowing was already inside them. So with the heart turned toward God: the proof is direct experience, not instruction. His closing instruction is sharp. Settle it in your own awareness; do not outsource the verdict to others, however good, for borrowed certainty is not the same as the thing known firsthand.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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