Experience, all things made equal
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुंगी आणि राव । आह्मां सारखाची जीव ॥1॥
गेला मोह आणि आशा । किळकाळाचा हा फांसा ॥ध्रु.॥
सोनें आणि माती। आह्मां समान हें चित्तीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आलें । घरा वैकुंठ सगळें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
An ant and a king are equal in our eyes; the life force in each is the same. Attachment and desire are gone; they were the noose of death. Gold and clay are the same to our chitta. Says Tuka, all of Vaikuntha has come home to us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
An ant and a king are the same in our sight; the life in each one is one and the same. Attachment is gone, and so is craving; they were the noose of death tightening on us. Gold and clay weigh the same now in our heart. Tuka says: the whole of Vaikuntha has come home to us.
What it means
Tukaram reports a settled condition, not a wish: the differences the world lives by have flattened out in him. An ant and a king carry the same life, gold and clay carry the same value, because the eye that ranked them has changed. He names what made the change: attachment and craving have left, and he calls them the very noose by which death held him. With that grip released, he says heaven has not been postponed to after death; the whole of Vaikuntha, God's own realm, has already arrived in his house.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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