Pandhari, the leveling of caste
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पंढरीचा वास धन्य ते चि प्राणी । अमृताची वाणी दिव्य देहो ॥1॥
मूढ मतिहीन दुष्ट अविचारी । ते होती पंढरी दयारूप ॥ध्रु.॥
शांति क्षमा अंगीं विरक्ति सकळ । नैराश्य निर्मळ नारी नर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं वर्णा अभिमान । अवघे जीवनमुक्त लोक ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Blessed are those souls who dwell in Pandhari. Their speech is nectar and their bodies are divine. Even the dull, the dim-witted, the wicked, and the thoughtless become forms of compassion in Pandhari. Serenity, forgiveness, detachment, and purity fill their beings, both men and women. Says Tuka, there is no pride of caste among them. All are living liberated souls.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Blessed are the souls who live in Pandhari. Their speech is nectar; their bodies are divine. Even the dull, the dim-witted, the wicked, the thoughtless, in Pandhari they become forms of mercy. Peace and forgiveness fill their bodies. The women and the men are pure, and they want nothing. Tuka says: among them there is no pride of caste. All of them are people set free while still alive.
What it means
Tukaram is naming what the holy ground of Pandhari does to the people who live in it. He says the place itself remakes them: even the dull and the cruel are turned into forms of compassion, their bodies divine and their speech sweet as nectar. He fills them with peace, forgiveness, purity, and the freedom of wanting nothing. The sharp claim sits in the last line: among these people there is no pride of caste, and every one of them, woman or man, is already liberated, not after death but now, alive. The pull of Pandhari dissolves the very rankings the world lives by.
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The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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