Experience, wake up, you already are
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दुजें खंडे तरी । उरला तो अवघा हरि ॥ आपणाबाहेरी । न लगे ठाव धुंडावा ॥१॥
इतुलें जाणावया जाणा । कोंडें तरी मनें मना ॥ पारधीच्या खुणा । जाणतें चि साधावे ॥ध्रु.॥
देह आधीं काय खरा । देहसंबंधपसारा ॥ बुजगावणें चोरा । रक्षणसें भासतें ॥२॥
तुका करी जागा । नको चाचपूं वाउगा ॥ आहेसि तूं आगा । अंगीं डोळे उघडी ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When duality is broken, what remains is all Hari. Outside yourself, no place need be searched. Know this much: still the mind with the mind. The hunter's signals must be learned by the one who knows them. Was the body ever real to begin with? The sprawl of body-relations is a scarecrow that only appears to protect. Tuka says: wake up! Do not grope uselessly. You ARE, O dear one. Open the eyes on the body.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the sense of two is broken, what is left is all Hari. You need not search for him anywhere outside yourself. Know just this much: still the mind by means of the mind. Like a hunter, you must learn to read the signs, and only the one who knows them can. Was the body ever real to begin with? The whole sprawl of body and its relations is a scarecrow, something that only looks as if it guards anything. Tuka says: wake up. Do not grope about in the dark for nothing. You already are. Open your eyes, right here in this body.
What it means
This is Tukaram at his most directly nondual. The whole search ends when the sense of being separate from God dissolves; then nothing remains but Hari, and there is nowhere outside to look. He gives a method, stilling the mind by the mind itself, and warns that it takes a trained eye, like a hunter reading tracks. Then the sharp question: was the body, and the whole tangle of relations built on it, ever truly real, or only a scarecrow that frightens and seems to protect while guarding nothing? The poem ends as a shout to wake up. You already are what you are seeking. Open your eyes where you stand.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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