Satire, knowledge sold for the belly
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
स्वप्नींच्या व्यवहारा काळांतर लेखा । जागृतीसि रुका गांठ नाहीं ॥1॥
तेवीं शब्दज्ञानें करिती चावटी । ज्ञान पोटासाटीं विकों नये ॥ध्रु.॥
बोलाची च कढी बोलाचा ची भात । जेवूनियां तृप्त कोण जाला ॥2॥
कागदीं लिहिली नांवाची साकर। चाटितां मधुर केवीं लागे ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे जळो जळो त्याचें ज्ञान। यमपुरी कोण दंड साहे ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who does business in a dream reckons up great accounts, but upon waking has not a single coin in hand. Just so, those who boast through mere verbal knowledge are peddling wisdom for their belly's sake; true knowledge should not be sold. A curry made of words, rice made of words: who has ever been satisfied by eating that meal? If you write the word 'sugar' on paper and lick it, how can it taste sweet? Says Tuka, burn, burn such knowledge. Who can endure the punishment in the city of Yama?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A man does business in a dream and reckons up huge accounts. He wakes, and there is not one coin in his hand. So it is with those who chatter from mere word-knowledge. Knowledge should not be sold for the belly's sake. Curry made of words, rice made of words: who was ever filled by eating that meal? Write the word sugar on paper and lick it. How can it taste sweet? Tuka says: burn, burn such knowledge. Who can bear the punishment in the city of Yama?
What it means
Tukaram attacks the trade in spiritual talk that has no living taste behind it. The dream-merchant is his picture of it: vast accounts that vanish the moment you wake, because nothing real ever changed hands. Words about food do not feed you, and the word sugar licked off paper stays bitter; knowledge recited but not realized is exactly that empty. The sharp turn is that he says such selling of wisdom for one's belly is not merely useless but dangerous, drawing punishment in Yama's city. The examination he presses is on the pattern of trading in borrowed words, not on any one teacher; the test is whether your knowing has ever actually nourished you.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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