Mahabharata 9: The Ladle Knows No Taste Of Soup Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

With no wisdom of one's own,
One well-read of words bare bone,
With none of his own light within,
He seldom knows what scriptures mean;
Dunked deep down to stir and scoop,
A ladle knows no taste of soup.
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Here is the transliteration of the original verse:

yasya na astinijā prajňakevalam tu bahu-shrutah |
na sah jānāti shāstra-artham darvī sūpa-rasān iva || sabhā 55-1 ||

This verse is spoken by Duryodhan. He tried all trickeries to convince his father to invite Yudhishthir for a gambling game. But they were of little use. He was frustrated by the fact that king Dhritarashtra always consulted his half-brother (and minister)Vidur, in every matter of the statecraft. Certain things none but the king should decide and he should not be guided by others, he argued. He also tried to blackmail the king emotionally.

This verse says that unless there is the light of comprehension within, no amount of mere reading (bahu-shrutam)would help. You may spend time reading/listening to scriptures, but they would fail to throw light in your unreceptive mind. Duryodhan compared this situation with a ladle spoon that remains dunked in soup, but still knows no taste of the soup. It cannot absorb the taste in the absence of the right faculties. The pursuit of vidyā too goes in vain in the same way.

As an interesting side light, this verse uses a word sūpa (meaning curry, daal) . The English word soup has come from this through Indo-European root.