Confession, borrowed knowledge
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शिकल्या शब्दाचें उत्पादितों ज्ञान । दरपणींचें धन उपर वाया ॥1॥
अनुभउ कइं होईन भोगिता । सांकडें तें आतां हें चि आलें ॥ध्रु.॥
गायें नाचें करीं शरीराचे धर्म । बीजकळावर्म तुमचें दान ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे केला उशीर न साहे । द्याल तरी आहे सर्व सिद्ध ॥3॥
सिकविला तैसा पढों जाणे पुसा । कैंची साच दशा तैसी अंगीं ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I produce knowledge from learned words, but it is like wealth seen in a mirror, useless in reality. When will experience come through actual practice? This is the difficulty that has now arrived. I sing and dance and perform the rituals of the body, but the seed and essence of true knowledge is Your gift alone. Says Tuka, the delay is unbearable. If You grant it, everything is already prepared. One who is taught can only recite what was memorized. How can such rote learning bring the true state into one's being?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I make knowledge out of words I have learned. It is like wealth seen in a mirror, of no use at all. When will real experience come, the kind you live through? That is the hard thing that now stands before me. I sing, I dance, I do the body's rituals. But the seed and the heart of true knowing are your gift alone. Tuka says: the delay is more than I can bear. If you grant it, all is already ready. One who is only taught can recite what he memorized. How can rote learning bring the true state into a man's own being?
What it means
Tukaram admits that what he has is secondhand: knowledge built from learned words, dazzling like coins glimpsed in a mirror but worthless because you cannot hold them. He marks the gap between this borrowed talk and lived experience, and the gap pains him. His singing, dancing and rites are real, but he insists the actual seed of realization is not something he can manufacture; it can only be given by God. So he turns it into a plea: the waiting is unbearable, yet everything is prepared the moment grace is granted. The last line drives the confession home: memorized recitation, however fluent, cannot put the true state into a person's own life.
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