Bold devotion, God beyond merit and sin
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझाठायीं ओस । दोन्ही पुण्य आणि दोष ॥1॥
झडलें उरलें किती । आह्मी धरियेलें चित्तीं ॥ध्रु.॥
कळलासी नष्टा। यातिक्रियाकर्मभ्रष्टा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बोला । नाहीं ताळा गा विठ्ठला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In you, both merit and sin are equally void. How much has fallen away, and how much remains? We have grasped this in our chitta. We have seen through you, O rascal, you who are beyond caste, ritual, and righteous deed. Says Tuka, there is no accounting for your words, O Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In you there is emptiness. Both merit and sin are void there. How much has fallen away, how much remains? We have held it fast in our chitta. We have seen through you, O rascal, you who are past caste and rite and righteous deed. Tuka says: there is no measure for your ways, O Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram speaks to God with rough affection, as one who has caught on to him. In God both merit and sin lose their weight, voided in his presence; what truly falls away and what stays is something the devotee has grasped inwardly, in the chitta. He calls Vitthal a rascal not in scorn but in delight, because Vitthal stands outside all the categories people live by, caste, ritual, and meritorious works, and so cannot be added up or accounted for. The harshness is the freedom of intimacy, the language of someone close enough to tease the divine.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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