The one doer, ego dissolved
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चाले हें शरीर कोणाचिये सत्ते । कोण बोलवितें हरीविण ॥1॥
देखवी दाखवी एक नारायण । तयाचें भजन चुकों नका ॥ध्रु.॥
मानसाची देव चालवी अहंता । मी चि एक कर्त्ता ह्मणों नये ॥2॥
वृक्षाचीं हीं पानें हाले त्याची सत्ता । राहिली अहंता मग कोठें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे विठो भरला सबाहीं । तया उणें कांहीं चराचरीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By whose power does this body move? Who makes it speak, if not Hari? It is Narayana alone who causes all seeing and showing. Do not neglect His worship. God drives the ego of the human mind. One should not say that I alone am the doer. Even the leaves of a tree stir only by His power. Where then does the ego stand? Says Tuka, Vitthal fills everything on all sides. Nothing in the whole creation is lacking in Him.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By whose power does this body move? Who makes it speak, if not Hari? It is Narayana alone who causes all seeing and showing. Do not neglect His worship. God drives even the ego in the human mind. Do not say, I alone am the doer. The leaves of a tree stir only by His power. Where then does the ego stand? Tuka says: Vitthal fills everything on every side. Nothing in all creation is empty of Him.
What it means
Tukaram asks a plain question and lets it dismantle the sense of being the doer: if you do not move your own body or speak your own words, on what does the claim I am the doer rest? He pushes it to the smallest thing, a leaf stirring on a tree, to show that even what feels like your own will is moved by God. The ego itself, he says, is driven by God, so there is no corner left from which to claim independent action. The frame is non-dual: Vitthal fills everything on all sides, nothing in creation is without Him, and worship is simply living in that fact rather than in the illusion of separate doership.
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