Nature of God, hidden yet near
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळों आलें तुझें जिणें । देवा तूं माझें पोसनें ॥1॥
वाट पाहासी आठवाची । सत्ता सतंत कईची ॥ध्रु.॥
बोलावितां यावें रूपा । सदा निर्गुणीं चि लपा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तूं परदेशी । येथें आह्मां अंगेजिसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have come to understand Your ways, O Lord; You are my sustainer. You await the moment of remembrance, biding your time for the saints' call. When called, You come into form, yet You always remain hidden in the formless. Says Tuka, You are the traveler from afar, and here You dwell within us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have come to see how You live, O God. You are the one who feeds and keeps me. You wait for the moment I remember You; Your power is forever, beyond time. When You are called, You come into form, yet always You hide in the formless. Tuka says: You are the traveler from a far country, and here You make Yourself my own.
What it means
Tukaram is telling God, with affection, that he has finally understood God's ways. God is his sustainer, the one who keeps him, and what God waits for is simply to be remembered, biding the eternal divine power until the call comes. The paradox the poem names is that the same God takes on form when called yet always stays hidden in the formless. Tukaram ends by calling God a stranger from afar who nonetheless becomes intimately his own, near at hand.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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