Grace turns knowledge into Brahman
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जरि हा हो कृपा करिल नारायण । तरी हें चि ज्ञान ब्रह्म होय ॥1॥
कोठोनियां कांहीं न लगे आणावें । न लगे कोठें जावें तरावया ॥ध्रु.॥
जरी देव कांहीं धरिल पैं चित्तीं । तरि हे चि होती दिव्य चक्षु ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देव दावील आपणा । तरि जीवपणा ठाव नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If Narayana chooses to be gracious, then this very knowledge becomes Brahman. Nothing needs to be brought from anywhere; one need not go anywhere to be saved. If God holds something in His chitta, then these very eyes become divine. Says Tuka, if God reveals Himself, there is no more room for the illusion of separate selfhood.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If Narayana chooses to be kind, then this very knowledge becomes Brahman. Nothing has to be fetched from anywhere; you need go nowhere to be saved. If God holds something in His heart, then these very eyes become divine eyes. Tuka says: if God shows Himself, then there is no room left for separate selfhood.
What it means
Tukaram is saying that everything turns on God's grace, not on going somewhere or acquiring something. With grace, the ordinary knowledge you already have becomes Brahman itself; nothing needs to be brought from elsewhere and no journey is required for liberation. When God wills it, the same eyes you now have see divinely. The final claim is the sharpest: once God reveals Himself, the sense of being a separate self has no place left to stand. Realization is not an addition; it is the dissolving of the I that thought itself apart.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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