Dance to Pandhari, saguna and nirguna are one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जतिस पद राखों जेणें टिपरिया घाई । अनुहातें वायें मांदळा रे ॥१॥
नाचत पंढरिये जाऊं रे खेळिया । विठ्ठल रखुमाई पाहूं रे ॥ध्रु.॥
सा चहूं वेगळा अठराही निराळा । गाऊं वाजवूं एक चाळा रे ।
विसरती पक्षी चारा घेणें पाणी । तारुण्य देहभाव बाळा रे ॥२॥
आंधळ्यासि डोळे पांगळांसि पाय । तुका म्हणे वृद्ध होती तारुण्यें रे ॥३॥
दोन्ही टिपरीं एक चि नाद । सगुण निर्गुण नाहीं भेद रे ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Keep the rhythm and guard the beat of the wooden clappers while the anahata, the unstruck sound, plays upon the drum. Let us dance our way to Pandhari, O players, and behold Vitthal and Rakhumai. Separate from the six, distinct from the eighteen, we shall sing and play as one single act of devotion. Even the birds forget their food and water; youth, bodily pride, and childhood all dissolve. The blind receive eyes, the lame receive feet, and the old become young again. Says Tuka, both clappers strike as one sound; between saguna and nirguna there is no difference at all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Keep the steps in time, hold the beat of the wooden clappers, while the unstruck sound plays upon the drum. Let us dance our way to Pandhari, players, and look upon Vitthal and Rakhumai. Apart from the six, separate from the eighteen, we will sing and play as one single act. The birds forget to take their food and water; youth, bodily pride, and childhood all melt away. The blind are given eyes, the lame are given feet. Tuka says: the old grow young again. The two clappers strike one sound; between saguna and nirguna there is no difference at all.
What it means
Tukaram joins the outer rhythm of the dance to an inner one: the wooden clappers keep human time while the anahata, the unstruck sound heard within, beats on the drum. The pilgrimage to Pandhari to see Vitthal and Rakhumai is set apart from the usual reckonings of philosophy, the six systems and the eighteen branches, because what moves here is love, not analysis. The images of the blind seeing, the lame walking, the old made young say that this devotion overturns every fixed limit. The closing line lands the deepest claim: the two clappers ring as one note, and so the God with form and the formless absolute are not two things but one.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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