Realization, devotee and God are one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मी जाणों तुझा भाव । कैंचा भक्त कैंचा देव । बीजा नाहीं ठाव । कैंचें फळ शेवटीं ॥1॥
संपादिलें बहु रूप । कैंचें पुण्य कैंचें पाप । नव्हतों आह्मी आप । आपणासी देखिलें॥ध्रु.॥
एके ठायीं घरिच्याघरीं । न कळतां जाली चोरी । तेथें तें चि दुरी । जाणें येणें खुंटलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे धरूनि हातीं । उर ठेविली मागुती । एकांतीं लोकांतीं । देवभक्तिसोहळा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We know Your secret, O God. Where is the devotee? Where is God? When the seed has no place to stand, how can there be fruit at the end? You have fashioned many appearances. Where is sin? Where is merit? We were never separate; we only saw ourselves as so. Within this one house, a theft happened unnoticed; from that point, coming and going ceased. Says Tuka, having caught hold of Your hand, we set aside the distinction once again; in solitude and in the world, the celebration of God and devotee goes on.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We know your secret. Where is the devotee, where is God? When the seed has no place to stand, where is the fruit at the end? Many forms were got up. Where is merit, where is sin? We were never a separate self; we only saw ourselves so. In one house, within our own home, a theft happened unnoticed; from there, the going out and coming in stopped. Tuka says: holding your hand, the distance was set aside again. Alone and among people, the festival of God and devotee goes on.
What it means
Tukaram says he has seen through the whole arrangement of two. If there is no separate seed, there can be no fruit, so the very categories of devotee and God, merit and sin, fall away. He admits the self never was apart; it only appeared apart by looking at itself wrongly. His image is a quiet theft within one's own house: separateness is stolen away unnoticed, and once it goes, the soul's restless coming and going ceases. Yet duality is not simply erased. Holding God's hand, he sets the distance aside, and in solitude or in a crowd the play of God and devotee still goes on, oneness that keeps the joy of relationship.
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