Nondual devotion, defense of the image
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघें ब्रम्हरूप रिता नाहीं ठाव । प्रतिमा तो देव कैसा नव्हे ॥१॥
नाहीं भाव तया सांगावें तें किती । आपुल्याला मतीं पाषांडिया ॥ध्रु.॥
जया भावें संत बोलिले वचन । नाहीं अनुमोदन शाब्दिकांसि ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे संतीं भाव केला बळी । न कळतां खळीं दूषिला देव ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Everything is the form of Brahman; there is no empty place. How then can an image not be God? Those without faith cannot be told enough; the heretic clings to his own opinion. The words the saints have spoken with true feeling find no acceptance among mere word-jugglers. Says Tuka, the saints made devotion itself the sacrificial offering, but the wicked, not understanding, found fault with God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Everything is the form of Brahman; there is no empty place anywhere. So how can the image not be God? Those who have no inner feeling, how much can you tell them? The heretic clings to his own opinion. The words the saints spoke out of true feeling find no agreement from mere jugglers of words. Tuka says: the saints made their own devotion the offering they gave. The wicked, not understanding, found fault with God.
What it means
Tukaram answers those who scorn worship of the murti, the sacred image, by pressing their own logic against them. If all that exists is the form of Brahman and no spot is empty of God, then the image too cannot be other than God. The split he draws is not between idol and spirit but between bhava and its absence: the saints speak from real inner feeling, while the word-jugglers and heretics argue from dry opinion and never reach acceptance. The saints' offering was devotion itself, faith laid on the altar. He ends by naming the real error of the mockers: in faulting the worshipped image they were finding fault with God, blind to what the devotee's heart had already made true.
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