Metaphor, impossible images, all is illusion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गंधर्वनगरीं क्षण एक राहावें । तें चि पैं करावें मुळक्षत्र ॥1॥
खपुष्पाची पूजा बांधोनि निर्गुणा । लक्ष्मीनारायणा तोषवावें ॥ध्रु.॥
वंध्यापुत्राचा लग्नाचा सोहळा । आपुलिया डोळां पाहों वेगीं ॥2॥
मृगजळा पोही घालुनि सज्ञाना । तापलिया जना निववावें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मिथ्या देहेंिद्रयकर्म । ब्रह्मार्पण ब्रह्म होय बापा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Dwell for a moment in the city of illusion and then use it as your foundation. Worship the formless Lakshmi-Narayana with sky-flowers and see if He is pleased. Witness with your own eyes the wedding celebration of a barren woman's son. Sprinkle the water of a mirage upon a scorched assembly and cool them. Says Tuka, the body, senses, and their actions are all illusory. When all is offered to Brahman, one becomes Brahman, O child.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Stay a moment in the city of the sky-spirits, and make that your foundation. Worship the formless with flowers that grow in the sky, and try to please Lakshmi-Narayana. Watch with your own eyes the wedding feast of a barren woman's son. Pour the water of a mirage over a scorched crowd and cool them. Tuka says: the body, the senses, and their deeds are all unreal. Offered to Brahman, one becomes Brahman, O child.
What it means
Tukaram strings together images that cannot exist: a city of sky-spirits used as solid ground, flowers grown in the empty sky, the son of a barren woman holding a wedding, a mirage that gives real water. Each is impossible, and that is the lesson: the world we take as solid is exactly as unreal as these. From this he draws the conclusion that the body, the senses, and all their actions are equally illusory, no more substantial than mirage-water. The closing turn is the release: when everything, including this unreal self, is offered up to Brahman, the offerer becomes Brahman. The tender address, O child, frames the whole thing as instruction, leading the listener from seeing through illusion to surrendering into the only thing that is real.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →