Devotion, without Hari all is false
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लटिका तो प्रपंच एक हरि साचा । हरिविण आहाच सर्व इंिद्रयें ॥1॥
लटिकें तें मौन्य भ्रमाचें स्वप्न । हरिविण ध्यान नश्वर आहे ॥ध्रु.॥
लटिकिया विपित्त हरिविण करिती । हरि नाहीं चित्तीं तो शव जाणा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हरि हें धरिसी निर्धारीं । तरीं तूं झडकरी जासी वैकुंठा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
This worldly life is false; Hari alone is true. Without Hari, all the senses are vain and empty. The silence of delusion is false, and the dream of confusion is false. Without Hari, meditation itself is perishable. Those who perform rituals without Hari, without Hari in their chitta, know them to be mere corpses. Says Tuka, if you hold Hari firmly in your conviction, you shall swiftly reach Vaikuntha.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Worldly life is false. Hari alone is true. Without Hari, all the senses are hollow and empty. The silence of delusion is false. The dream of confusion is false. Without Hari, even meditation is perishable. Those who perform rituals without Hari, without Hari in the heart: know them to be mere corpses. Tuka says: if you hold Hari firmly in your conviction, you will quickly reach Vaikuntha.
What it means
Tukaram sets one truth against everything else: only Hari is real, and apart from Hari the whole sensory world is empty. He refuses to spare even the respectable spiritual practices: a silence or meditation done without Hari is still delusion and still perishes. The hardest line calls ritual performed without Hari in the heart a corpse, a body going through motions with no life in it. The point is not to abandon practice but to put Hari at its center; with that conviction held firm, the way to Vaikuntha is short and sure.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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