Nature of God, limbs of one body
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विष्णुमय जग वैष्णवांचा धर्म । भेदाभेदभ्रम अमंगळ ॥१॥
अइका जी तुम्ही भक्त भागवत । कराल तें हित सत्य करा ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका म्हणे एका देहाचे अवयव । सुख दुःख जीव भोग पावे ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The world is Vishnu-constituted. This is the dharma of Vaishnavas. The delusion of difference and non-difference is inauspicious. Listen, O devotees, O Bhagavatas: whatever serves your good, do that truly. Tuka says: the limbs belong to one body. Whatever pleasure or pain comes, the one being experiences it.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The whole world is made of Vishnu. This is the dharma of his devotees. The delusion that argues over difference and non-difference is an unholy thing. Listen, devotees, lovers of God: whatever truly serves your good, do that, and do it in truth. Tuka says: we are all limbs of one body. Whatever pleasure or pain comes to any, it is the one being who feels it.
What it means
One of Tukaram's most quoted teachings, and the ground of his ethics. If the whole world is made of God, then the quarrel over whether things are different from God or identical with him is not merely useless but unholy; it divides what is one. From this he draws a practical command to the devotees: do what genuinely serves the good, and do it honestly. And he gives the reason in an image that needs no philosophy: all beings are limbs of a single body, so another's pain and another's joy are, in truth, felt by the one being we all are. To wound another is to wound yourself.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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