Nature of God, the sea playing with itself
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्षरला सागर गंगा ओघीं मिळे । आपण चि खेळे आपणाशीं ॥1 ॥
मधील ते वाव अवघी उपाधि । तुह्मां आह्मांमधीं ते चि परी ॥ध्रु.॥
घट मठ जाले आकाशाचे पोटीं । वचनें चि तुटी तेथें चि तें ॥2 ॥
तुका ह्मणे बीजें बीज दाखविलें । फल पुष्प आलें गेलें वांयां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The ocean churns within itself as the Ganga merges into it; it plays with itself alone. All the space between is mere illusion; between You and us it is the very same. Pots and chambers arise within the belly of the sky, and by words alone the separation is created and dissolved. Says Tuka, the seed has revealed the seed; flower and fruit have come and gone in vain.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The ocean pours out, the Ganga merges into it; it plays with itself alone. All that lies between is only added name and limit. Between You and us it is just the same. Pots and chambers form within the belly of the sky, and by words alone the dividing is made, and there itself it is undone. Tuka says: the seed has shown only the seed. Flower and fruit came and went in vain.
What it means
Tukaram points to the oneness beneath all apparent difference. The river flowing into the sea is only the sea returning to itself; the whole appearance of separateness in between is mere name and limit laid over a single reality. The same holds between God and the soul. His image of pots and rooms shaped within open sky shows that the walls dividing one space from another are made by words alone, and dissolve there too. The closing line says the seed only ever revealed itself as seed; the show of flower and fruit, of growth and difference, was passing and finally empty.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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