Experience, the senses turned inward
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न देखोन कांहीं । म्या पाहिलें सकळ ही ॥१॥
जालों अवघियांपरी । मी हें माझें ठेलें दुरी ॥ध्रु.॥
न घेतां घेतलें । हातें पायें उसंतिलें ॥२॥
खादलें न खातां । रसना रस जाली घेतां ॥३॥
न बोलोनि बोलें । केलें प्रगट झांकिलें ॥४॥
नाइकिलें कानीं । तुका म्हणे आलें मनीं ॥५॥
ब्रम्हचारी फिर्याद गेला - अभंग २
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Without seeing anything, I have seen everything. I became one with all things, and the sense of me and mine fell away. Without taking, I have received; my hands and feet are at rest. Without eating, I have tasted; the tongue has become the very flavor. Without speaking, I have spoken; what was hidden has been made plain. Says Tuka, without hearing through the ears, it all entered the mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Without seeing anything, I have seen it all. I became one with everything, and the sense of me and mine fell far away. Without taking, I have received; my hands and feet have come to rest. Without eating, I have tasted; the tongue itself became the flavor. Without speaking, I have spoken; what was hidden has been shown. Tuka says: without hearing it through the ears, it has all come into the mind.
What it means
Tukaram is reporting a state where every sense works without its ordinary object. He sees with no thing to see, possesses with no act of taking, tastes with nothing eaten, speaks without speech, knows without hearing: each line cancels the usual outward path of the sense and finds the experience complete within. The pivot is the second line, where me and mine fall away and he becomes one with all; once the separate self drops, the senses no longer need to reach out to grasp anything. This is the language of nondual realization stated as plain fact, the whole gathered inward where there is nothing left outside to acquire.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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