Nature of God, why the Name
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां जी धरिलें नाम । तुह्मी असोनि निष्काम ॥1॥
कोणां सांगतसां ज्ञान । ठकाठकीचें लक्षण ॥ध्रु.॥
आवडीनें नाचें। आहे तरी पुढें साचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे प्रेम । नाहीं भंगायाचें काम ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O God, why do You bear a Name when You are already desireless? Whom are You teaching this knowledge to? It all seems like a divine game. If there is something real beyond all this, let it reveal itself before us in love. Says Tuka, the bond of love cannot be broken.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why, Lord, have you taken on a Name, when you are already free of all desire? Whom are you teaching this knowledge to? It looks like a game of give and take. If something true lies beyond all this, let it stand plain before us, in love. Tuka says: love is not a thing that can be broken.
What it means
Tukaram presses God with a teasing question: if you want nothing and need nothing, why bother to wear a Name and play at teaching? The whole arrangement looks to him like a divine game, a back and forth with no necessity behind it. So he asks for the one thing he can stand on: if there is something truly real underneath the play, let it show itself plainly, and let it show in love. He ends by naming what cannot be undone in all this shifting game, the bond of love itself, which holds when arguments do not.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →