Experience, the three together
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्ति तें नमन वैराग्य तो त्याग । ज्ञान ब्रह्मीं भोग ब्रह्मतनु ॥1॥
देहाच्या निरसनें पाविजे या ठाया । माझी ऐसी काया जंव नव्हे ॥ध्रु.॥
उदक अिग्न धान्य जाल्या घडे पाक । एकाविण एक कामा नये ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज केले ते चांचणी । बडबडीची वाणी अथवा सत्य ॥3॥ ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Devotion is bowing, dispassion is renunciation, and knowledge is the experience of Brahman in a body made of Brahman. These states are reached by transcending the body, so long as one does not say 'this body is mine.' Just as cooking requires water, fire, and grain together, and no one element suffices alone, so too all three are needed. Says Tuka, they have tested me to see whether my speech is mere prattle or truth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Devotion is bowing low. Dispassion is letting go. Knowledge is to taste Brahman in a body that is itself Brahman. You reach this place by setting the body aside, by no longer saying this body is mine. Cooking needs water, fire, and grain together; not one of them does the work alone. Tuka says: they have tested me, to see whether my speech is only chatter or the truth.
What it means
Tukaram defines three things plainly and then says they must work as one. Devotion is the act of bowing, dispassion is real renunciation, and knowledge is the lived taste of Brahman, found once the body stops being clung to as mine. He insists none of these stands alone, the way cooking needs water, fire, and grain together and no single ingredient will feed you. The closing line is his own stake: he has been put to the test, and he claims his words are truth and not idle talk. The point is that the path is not one trick but the whole of it held together.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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