Nature of God, formless yet near
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं रूप नाहीं नांव । नाहीं ठाव धराया ॥1॥
जेथें जावें तेथें आहे । विठ्ठल मायबहीण ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं आकार विकार । चराचर भरलेंसे ॥2॥
नव्हे निर्गुण सगुण । जाणे कोण तयासी॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे भावाविण । त्याचें मन वोळेना ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He has no form, no name, no place that can hold Him. Yet wherever you go, Vitthal is there, like a mother and sister. He has no shape, no modification; He fills all that moves and does not move. He is neither formless nor with form; who can truly know Him? Says Tuka, without sincere devotion, His heart will not turn toward you.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He has no form, no name, no place that can hold him. Yet wherever you go, there is Vitthal, like a mother and a sister. He has no shape, no change; he fills all that moves and all that does not. He is neither without form nor with form; who can really know him? Tuka says: without true love, his heart will not turn to you.
What it means
Tukaram holds together two things that sound opposite. God has no form, no name, no fixed place, and yet he is met everywhere, as close and tender as one's own mother and sister. He is beyond the categories the mind reaches for, neither merely formless nor merely embodied, so no one can simply know him by thinking. The last line gives the one key that does open him: love. Knowledge fails where devotion succeeds; God's heart turns only toward the one who comes with true feeling, not toward the one who comes with clever definitions.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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