राम
गाथा 3112The Nature of God

Nondual vision, the impurity is desire

Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram

मराठी मूळ

भूमि अवघी शुद्ध जाणा । अमंगळ हे वासना ॥1॥

तैसे वोसपले जीव । सांडी नसतां अंगीं घाव ॥ध्रु.॥

जीव अवघे देव । खोटा नागवी संदेह ॥2॥

तुका ह्मणे शुद्ध । मग तुटलिया भेद ॥3॥

Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)

English Translation

Know that all earth is pure; it is desire that is impure. Likewise, beings cry out in anguish, carrying wounds that are not truly there. All jivas are God; it is false doubt that deceives and strips them bare. Says Tuka, once differences are dissolved, all becomes pure.

We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.

In Plain Words

Know this: all the earth is pure. It is desire that is impure. So too the living cry out in pain, carrying wounds that are not really there. All jivas are God. It is false doubt that robs them and leaves them bare. Tuka says: it is pure. Once the difference breaks, it is pure.

What it means

Tukaram locates impurity not in the world but in the wanting mind. The ground itself is clean; it is vasana, craving, that stains. In the same way beings groan over wounds that have no real existence, suffering a hurt their own seeing has invented. He states the radical claim plainly: every jiva is God, and only false doubt deceives a being into feeling stripped and lost. When the sense of difference dissolves, what is left is the purity that was always there.

ईश्वर स्वरूप

The Nature of God

Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.

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