Adoration, Hari and Hara are one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धरोनि दोन्ही रूपें पाळणें संहार । करी कोप रुद्र दयाळ विष्णु ॥1॥
जटाजूट एका मुगुट माथां शिरीं । कमळापति गौरीहर एक ॥ध्रु.॥
भस्मउद्धळण लक्ष्मीचा भोग । शंकर श्रीरंग उभयरूपीं ॥2॥
वैजयंती माळा वासुगीचा हार । लेणें अळंकार हरिहरा ॥3॥
कपाळ झोळी एका स्मशानींचा वास । एक जगन्निवास विश्वंभर ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे मज उभयरूपीं एक । सारोनि संकल्प शरण आलों ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Holding both forms, He sustains and destroys: fierce as Rudra, compassionate as Vishnu. One wears matted locks, the other a crown; the Lord of Kamala and the Lord of Gauri are one. One is smeared with ash, the other enjoys the company of Lakshmi; Shankara and Shrirang are both aspects of the same being. One wears the Vaijayanti garland, the other the serpent Vasuki; both are ornaments of Harihara. One carries a skull and dwells in cremation grounds; the other is the Lord of the universe. Says Tuka, to me both forms are one. Settling all deliberation, I have come to surrender.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Holding both forms, he sustains and he destroys. He is fierce as Rudra, kind as Vishnu. One wears matted locks, the other a crown; the Lord of Kamala and the Lord of Gauri are one. One is smeared with ash, the other enjoys the company of Lakshmi; Shankara and Shrirang are both the same being. One wears the Vaijayanti garland, the other wears the serpent Vasuki; both are the ornaments of Harihara. One carries a skull and lives in the cremation ground; the other is the dwelling place of the world, Vishvambhar. Tuka says: to me both forms are one. I have settled all my deliberation and come to surrender.
What it means
Tukaram lays Shiva and Vishnu side by side, detail for detail, only to fold them into one. Where one is fierce, the other is gentle; where one wears matted hair and ash and a skull and haunts the burning ground, the other wears a crown and the Vaijayanti garland and dwells with Lakshmi as the support of the whole world. By naming these opposites as twin aspects of Harihara, he refuses the old quarrel over which deity is supreme. The poem ends not in argument but in rest: he has stopped weighing and choosing, dropped his deliberation, and simply surrendered to the one who wears both forms.
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