Experience, free of name and form
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कांहीं च मी नव्हें कोणिये गांवींचा । एकट ठायींचा ठायीं एक ॥१॥
नाहीं जात कोठें येत फिरोनियां । अवघें चि वांयांविण बोलें ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं मज कोणी आपुलें दुसरें । कोणाचा मी खरें कांहीं नव्हे ॥२॥
नाहीं आम्हां ज्यावें मरावें लागत । आहों अखंडित जैसे तैसे ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे नांवरूप नाहीं आम्हां । वेगळा ह्या कर्मा अकर्मासी ॥४॥
लोहगावांस परचक्रवेढा पडला - अभंग ३
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I belong to no village at all; I am alone, one with the One. I go nowhere and return from nowhere; all that I speak is without substance. I have no one who is mine, nor do I truly belong to anyone. I do not need to live or to die; I remain as I am, unbroken and unchanged. Says Tuka, I have neither name nor form; I am apart from both action and inaction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am nothing, and I belong to no village. I am alone, one with the One. I go nowhere and come back from nowhere; all that I say is without substance. No one is mine, and I am truly no one's. I do not need to live or to die. I stay as I am, unbroken, just as I am. Tuka says: I have no name and no form. I stand apart from action and from inaction.
What it means
This is Tukaram speaking from the far side of liberation, where the ordinary marks of a self have dropped away. He has no village, no kin, no comings or goings, and even his own words he calls empty, because the separate person who would own them is gone. Belonging to no one and owning no one, he no longer faces birth or death as events that touch him; he simply remains, unbroken and unchanging. The closing claim is the boldest: he is beyond name and form, and beyond the whole pair of action and inaction. The verse is the direct report of nondual realization, not a wish for it.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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