Nature of God, the all-pervading One
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गेला कोठें होता कोठुनियां आला । सहज व्यापला आहे नाहीं ॥1॥
आहे साच भावें सकळव्यापक । नाहीं अभाविक लोकां कोठें ॥2॥
कोठे नाहीं ऐसा नाहीं रिता ठाव । अनुभवी देव स्वयें जालें ॥3॥
जातों येतों आह्मी देवाचे सांगांतें । तुका ह्मणे गात देवनाम ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where did He go? Where did He come from? He naturally pervades everything, present and absent at once. He is truly present for those who believe. For the faithless, He is nowhere to be found. There is no place empty of Him; those who have experienced Him have become God themselves. Says Tuka, we come and go in God's company, singing His Name.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where did He go? Where did He come from? He simply pervades everything; He is both present and not. For those who truly believe, He is really there. For the faithless, He is nowhere to be found. There is no spot anywhere that is empty of Him. Those who have tasted Him have become God themselves. We come and go in God's company. Tuka says: singing God's Name.
What it means
Tukaram answers the question that the bhakti story leaves hanging: if God came and went, where is He now? His reply is that the coming and going was never the whole truth, because God pervades all things and is everywhere at once. Whether you find Him depends on you: the believer meets a God who is truly present, the faithless person looks and finds nothing, though no place is actually empty of Him. He pushes the claim to its edge, saying those who have actually experienced Him have themselves become God. For Tukaram this is not theory but a way of walking through life, moving in God's company while singing the Name.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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