Discernment, the marks of God's coming
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवाची ते खूण आला ज्याच्या घरा । त्याच्या पडे चिरा मनुष्यपणा ॥1॥
देवाची ते खूण करावें वाटोंळें । आपणा वेगळें कोणी नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
देवाची ते खूण गुंतों नेदी आशा । ममतेच्या पाशा शिवों नेदी ॥2॥
देवाची ते खूण तोडी मायाजाळ। आणि हें सकळ जग हरी ॥4॥
पहा देवें तेंचि बळकाविलें स्थळ। तुक्यापें सकळ चिन्हें होतीं ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The sign of God's arrival is that the one He visits is stripped of all human pride. The sign of God is that one serves all beings, knowing no one as separate from oneself. The sign of God is that one is freed from the snare of desire and the bonds of attachment. The sign of God is that He tears apart the web of illusion and fills the whole world with Hari. See, God has taken hold of that very ground; all these marks were present in Tuka.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This is the sign of God: when he enters someone's house, that person's human pride cracks apart. This is the sign of God: one is made completely undone, holding no one as separate from oneself. This is the sign of God: he lets no desire entangle you, and lets the noose of attachment touch you no more. This is the sign of God: he tears the net of Maya, and fills this whole world with Hari. See, God has seized that very ground; in Tuka all these signs were present.
What it means
Tukaram gives a checklist for telling whether God has actually arrived in a person, and it is measured by what gets destroyed, not what gets added. The first casualty is human pride, which cracks the moment God enters; next the very sense of a separate self dissolves, so the person sees no one as other. He names the freedoms that follow: desire no longer entangles, attachment's noose can no longer grip, and the whole net of Maya is torn so that the world shows itself as full of Hari. At the end he turns the test on himself, claiming these signs were all visible in his own life, which is both witness and quiet warning to check ourselves by the same marks.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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