True worship, the pandit who sees God in all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पंडित तो चि एक भला । नित्य भजे जो विठ्ठला ॥1॥
अवघें सम ब्रह्म पाहे । सर्वां भूतीं विठ्ठल आहे ॥ध्रु.॥
रिता नाहीं कोणी ठाव । सर्वां भूतीं वासुदेव ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तो चि दास। त्यां देखिल्या जाती दोष ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The only pandit truly worthy of praise is the one who worships Vitthal daily. He sees all as equal Brahman, recognizing Vitthal present in every creature. No place is empty of the divine; Vasudeva dwells in all beings. Says Tuka, that one alone is a true servant of God; in whose sight all sins are dissolved.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The only pandit worth the name is the one who worships Vitthal every day. He sees everything as the same Brahman; Vitthal is present in every creature. No place is empty of him; Vasudeva dwells in all beings. Tuka says: that one alone is a true servant. To look on him, your sins fall away.
What it means
This is the answer to the false pandit of the previous poem: Tukaram redefines who deserves the title. The true learned one is not the reciter but the one who worships Vitthal daily and, through that worship, comes to see the same Brahman everywhere, Vitthal and Vasudeva present in every being and in every place. Knowledge here is inseparable from devotion and from a transformed way of seeing the world. Such a person, he says, is the only real servant of God. So sanctified is that seeing that merely beholding such a one undoes the sins of those who look.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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