God dissolves all things, the unmaking
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शोधिसील मूळें । त्याचें करीसी वाटोळें ॥१॥
ऐसे संतांचे बोभाट । तुझे बहु जाले तट ॥ध्रु.॥
लौकिका बाहेरी । घाली रोंखीं जया धरी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे गुण । तुझा लागलिया शून्य ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When you search anything to its root, you destroy it utterly. Such is the outcry of the saints: your shores of argument are too many. You cast beyond all worldly convention whoever you seize. Says Tuka, when Your nature touches anything, it becomes zero.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When you trace a thing down to its root, you break it apart completely. This is the saints' loud cry: your banks of argument are many. Whoever you take hold of, you cast outside all worldly custom. Tuka says: when your nature touches a thing, it turns to zero.
What it means
Tukaram is describing what happens when God's reality is brought to bear on anything. Pressed to its root, a thing loses its standing; the saints cry out that there is no settling on the safe shore of argument, because every position breaks down. When God lays hold of a person, that person is thrown outside the ordinary rules of society. The poem names the stakes plainly: contact with God reduces every separate thing, every claim, every appearance, to nothing.
The Necessity of Experience
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