Nonduality, gold and its ornaments
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न दिसे अंतर । गोडी ठायीं निवडितां ॥1॥
तुह्मी आह्मी पांडुरंगा । भिन्न ऐसें काय सांगा ।
जाळविलें जगा । मी हें माझें यासाटीं॥ध्रु॥
पायीं हातीं नाकीं शिरीं । हेम राहे अळंकारीं ।
मुसे आल्यावरी। काय निवडे वेगळें ॥2॥
निजलिया लाभ हानी । तों च खरी ते स्वप्नीं ।
तुका ह्मणे दोन्ही । निवारलीं जागतां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
There is no difference in sweetness when you try to separate it into parts. Tell me, O Panduranga, in what way are You and we truly different? This illusion of mine and yours was created to deceive the world. Gold remains gold whether in ornaments on hands, feet, nose, or head; when put in the mold, nothing separates out as different. Says Tuka, the gain and loss of a dream seem real only while one sleeps; both vanish upon waking.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
No difference shows when you try to sort out the sweetness into parts. You and we, Panduranga: tell me, how are we truly separate? This sense of mine and yours was set up to burn the world in delusion. On feet, on hands, on the nose, on the head, gold stays in the ornament. Once it goes back to the mold, what stands out as different? In sleep, gain and loss seem real, true only inside the dream. Tuka says: both of them are cleared away when you wake.
What it means
Tukaram denies any real split between the soul and God. He tests it the way you taste sweetness: you cannot divide the sweetness into separate parts, and the same holds for self and Panduranga. The talk of mine and yours, he says, exists only to deceive the world. His image is gold worked into many ornaments for hands, feet, nose, head, all still the one gold, and when melted in the mold nothing distinct remains. The dream seals it: gain and loss feel real while you sleep, but both vanish on waking, and so does duality the moment you wake into truth.
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