God fills all; untangle craving
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आडवा तो उभा । असे दाटोनियां प्रभा ॥1॥
देव नाहीं एकविध । एक भाव असे शुद्ध ॥ध्रु.॥
भेदाभेद आटी । नाहीं फार कोठें तुटी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे गोवा । उगवा वेव्हाराचा हेवा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Horizontally, vertically, His radiance stands filling everything. God is not a single, simple thing; only pure devotion is single and constant. The effort to resolve difference and non-difference, there is not too much distance or too much severance anywhere. Says Tuka, untangle the knot of worldly craving and desire.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sideways and upright, his light stands crowding everything full. God is not just one plain thing; only pure devotion is single and constant. The struggle of difference and no-difference: there is no great gap anywhere, no real break. Tuka says: untangle the knot, undo the craving for worldly dealings.
What it means
Tukaram sees God's radiance packed into every direction, filling all space, so that God is not some single object set apart from the rest. What stays single and constant is not God reduced to one form but the devotion that holds steady. He waves away the endless dispute over whether the soul and God are different or not different, saying there is no real gap and no real break to fight over. The one thing that needs doing, then, is practical, not theoretical: untangle the knot of craving for worldly transactions, because that craving, not any metaphysical distance, is what keeps a person from the God who already fills everything.
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