Nature of God, made small by love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वेदश्रुति तुज नेणती कोणी । चोवीस ठेंगणीं धांडोिळतां॥1॥
आतां मज क्षमा करावें देवा । सलगी ते केशवा बोलियेलों ॥ध्रु.॥
सगुण कीं साकार निर्गुण कीं निराकार । न कळे हा पार वेदां श्रुतीं ।
तो आह्मी भावें केलासी लहान । ठेवूनियां नांवें पाचारितों ॥2॥
सहजरमुखें शेष सीणला स्तवितां । पार न कळतां ब्रह्मा ठेला ।
तेथें माझी देहबुिद्ध तें काई । थोर मी अन्यायी तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The Vedas and the scriptures cannot fathom You; even the twenty-four cosmic principles fall short when they try. Now, O God, forgive me, for I have spoken to You, O Keshava, with the familiarity of a child. Are You with form or formless, with qualities or without? Neither the Vedas nor the scriptures know Your limit. Yet through devotion I have made You small, calling You by name and summoning You. With his thousand mouths, Shesha grew weary of praising You, and Brahma stood baffled, unable to find Your boundary. Before all that, what is my body-bound understanding worth? Says Tuka, I am the greatest offender of all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The Vedas and the scriptures do not know you; even the twenty-four principles fall short when they search. Now forgive me, God, for I have spoken to you, Keshava, with a child's familiarity. With form or formless, with qualities or without: the Vedas and the scriptures do not find your limit. Yet through love I have made you small, given you a name, and called you to me. Shesha wore himself out praising you with his thousand mouths, and Brahma stood baffled, never finding your edge. Against all that, what is my body-bound understanding worth? Tuka says: I am the greatest offender of all.
What it means
Tukaram begs pardon for an intimacy he knows is impossible to justify. He stacks up the witnesses to God's boundlessness: the Vedas and scriptures cannot grasp him, the cosmic principles fall short, the question of form or formlessness has no answer, the serpent Shesha exhausts a thousand mouths in praise, and even Brahma is left baffled. Against that immensity, his own little mind is nothing. And yet love has done a daring thing: it has shrunk this infinite God down small enough to be given a name and called near like a familiar friend. He confesses this as the boldest of offenses, even while it is exactly what devotion lives by.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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