Self-knowledge over learning
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जालासि पंडित पुराण सांगसी । परि तूं नेणसी मीं हें कोण ॥1॥
गाढवभरी पोथ्या उलथिशी पानें । परि गुरुगम्यखुणे नेणशी बापा ॥2॥
तुका कुणबियाचा नेणे शास्त्रमत । एक पंढरीनाथ विसंबेना ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have become a scholar and expound the Puranas, yet you do not know 'Who am I?' You load books on a donkey and turn the pages, but you do not know the Guru's secret, dear one. Says Tuka, I am a farmer's son and know nothing of scriptural learning, yet I never part from the Lord of Pandhari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have become a scholar. You expound the Puranas. But you do not know who I am. You pile books on a donkey and turn the pages, dear one, but you do not know the Guru's secret sign. Tuka says: I am a farmer's son. I know nothing of the doctrines of the scriptures. Yet I never let go of Panduranga, the Lord of Pandhari, for a moment.
What it means
Tukaram sets two kinds of knowing against each other and chooses the smaller-looking one. The learned man can recite the Puranas, yet he has missed the one question they exist for: who is the self that knows. Stacking books on a donkey is the image he gives for learning carried but not lived; the beast bears the weight and understands none of it. Against that he places his own poverty of learning, a farmer's son with no scriptural standing, and one thing he does have: he never parts from the Lord of Pandhari. The poem's point is that the Guru's secret is held in the heart, not on the page.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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