Nature of God, the one in the heart
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय नव्हेसी तूं एक । देखों कासया पृथक ॥1॥
मुंग्या कैंचे मुंगळे । नटनाटए तुझे चाळे ॥ध्रु.॥
जाली तरी मर्यादा। किंवा त्रासावें गोविंदा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे साचा । कोठें जासी हृदयींचा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What is there that You are not? Why should we see You as separate? Ants and their hills are all Your playful acts and dramatic performances. If there is a boundary, let it be set, or else trouble us, O Govinda. Says Tuka, O true One, where can You go, You who dwell in the heart?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is there that You are not? Why should we see You as separate? Ants and anthills alike are all Your play, Your acting and Your dramas. If there is to be a limit, set one; otherwise, why trouble us, O Govinda? Tuka says: O true One, where can You go, You who live in the heart?
What it means
Tukaram presses the non-dual claim that nothing stands outside God. If God is everything, then seeing him as a separate object makes no sense; even ants and their hills are simply roles in his ongoing play. So Tukaram challenges Govinda directly: either fix some honest boundary to what you are, or stop troubling us with the illusion of distance. The closing line answers its own question and seals the point. A God who dwells in the heart has nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide, because the seeker and the sought share the same ground.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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