Nondual presence, no you and I
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां रे दाटोन होतां वेडे । देव आहे तुह्मांपुढें ॥1॥
ज्यास पाठ नाहीं पोट । करी त्रैलोक्याचा घोंट ॥ध्रु.॥
तुमची तुह्मां नाहीं सोय । कोणाचें काय जाय ॥2॥
तुका गातो नामीं । तेथें नाहीं आह्मी तुह्मी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why do you crowd about in confusion? God is standing right before you. He who has no back or front can swallow all three worlds in a gulp. You cannot find your own way; what does anyone else lose by that? Says Tuka, I sing the Name. There, there is no 'you' or 'I.'.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why do you crowd about in confusion? God is standing right before you. He who has no back and no front swallows all three worlds in one gulp. You cannot find your own way. What does anyone else lose by that? Tuka says: I sing the Name. There, there is no you and no I.
What it means
Tukaram rebukes the bewildered crowd and points straight at the obvious: God is already standing in front of them. The God he names is beyond shape, with no back or front, large enough to drink down all three worlds at a swallow, so the seeking that runs in every direction is the very confusion that hides Him. He notes drily that people lose only themselves by missing the way, no one else. The resolving claim is in the Name: when he sings it the separation between worshipper and worshipped dissolves, and there is no you and I left to stand apart.
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