Nonduality, the self dissolved
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
करावें तें काम । उगाच वाढवावा श्रम ॥1॥
अवघें एकमय । राज्य बोलों चालों नये ॥ध्रु.॥
दुजयाची सत्ता । न चलेसी जाली आतां ॥2॥
आतां नाहीं तुका । पुन्हा हारपला लोकां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do the work that must be done; why increase labor needlessly? Everything has become one; in this kingdom, speech and movement no longer apply. The authority of duality no longer holds sway. Says Tuka, Tuka is no more; he has vanished among the people.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do the work that must be done. Why pile up labor for nothing? Everything is one. In this kingdom there is no speaking and no moving. The rule of a second thing no longer holds. Tuka says: now there is no Tuka. He has vanished again into the people.
What it means
Tukaram describes a state where the sense of a separate self has fallen away. Do only the work that is needed, he says, and stop adding useless effort, because all of it now appears as one. In that oneness there is no second thing to act on or speak to, so the busy machinery of doing and saying loses its ground. The line of his own name is the point: there is no longer a Tuka standing apart. He has disappeared back into the very oneness, the people, the all, he once thought he faced from outside.
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