Nondual riddle, God robs God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवाचे घरीं देवें केले चोरी । देवें देव नागवूनि केला भिकारी ॥1॥
धांवणियां धांवा धांवणियां धांवा । माग चि नाहीं जावें कवणिया गांवा ॥ध्रु.॥
सवें चि होता चोर घरिचिया घरीं । फावलियावरी केलें अवघें वाटोळें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें कोणी च नाहीं । नागवलें कोण गेलें कोणाचें काई ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In God's own house, God committed the theft; God robbed God and made God a beggar. Run, run for help! But there is no trail to follow and no other town to search. The thief was inside the house all along; when the chance arose, he swept everything clean. Says Tuka, truly no one is here; who was robbed, and what of anyone's has been lost?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In God's own house, God committed the theft; God robbed God and made God a beggar. Run, run for help! But there is no trail to follow and no other town to go to. The thief was inside the house all along; when the chance came, he made a clean sweep of everything. Tuka says: truly no one is here. Who was robbed? Whose is the thing that was lost?
What it means
This is a deliberate riddle pointing at nonduality, where every role in the story turns out to be the one God. The thief, the victim, the beggar, the house, all are God; God robs God in God's own home, and so the cry for help has nowhere to run and no other town to search, because there is no outside. The robbery is total and intimate: the thief was never an intruder, he lived inside all along. Tukaram lands the paradox in the final line by dissolving the players entirely. If truly no one is here, then the questions collapse: there was no separate one to be robbed, and nothing of anyone's was ever lost.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →