Nature of God, worship when all is already Him
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय आह्मी भक्ति करणें कैसी । काय एक वाहावें तुह्मांसी । अवघा भरोनि उरलासी । वाणीं खाणीं रसीं रूपगंधी ॥1॥
कसें करूं इंिद्रयां बंधन । पुण्यपापाचें खंडण । काय व्रत करूं आचरण । काय तुजविण उरलें तें ॥2॥
काय डोळे झांकुनियां पाहूं । मंत्रजप काय ध्याऊं । कवणें ठायीं धरूनि भाव । काय तें वाव तुजविण ॥3॥
काय हिंडों कवण दिशा । कवणे ठायीं पाय ठेवूं कैसा । काय तूं नव्हेसि न कळे तैसा । काय मी कैसा पाहों आतां ॥4॥
तुझिया नामाची सकळ । पूजा अर्चन मंत्र माळ । धूप दीप नैवेद्य फळ तांबूल । घेऊं पुष्पांजुळ तुका ह्मणे ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What devotion should we perform and how? What offering should we bring to You? You fill everything and overflow. You pervade every store, every mine, every taste, every form, every fragrance. How shall we restrain the senses? How shall we break the chain of sin and virtue? What vow or observance shall we practice? What remains apart from You? Should we close our eyes to see? What mantra shall we chant? What shall we meditate upon? Where shall we fix our devotion? What is there that is not You? Where should we wander and in which direction? Where and how shall we set our feet? You are everything, though You appear as though You are not. How then shall I look? Your Name itself is all worship, all prayer, all chanting, all garlands, all incense, all lamps, all food-offerings, all fruit. Says Tuka, we will gather this handful of flowers in Your Name.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What devotion are we to do, and how? What one thing can we bring you? You have filled everything and still overflow. You are in every word, every mine, every taste, every form and fragrance. How shall we bind the senses? How shall we break off sin and virtue? What vow shall we keep, what practice perform? What is left over apart from you? Shall we shut our eyes to see you? What mantra shall we chant, what shall we meditate on? Where shall we fix our devotion? What of any of it is real apart from you? Which way shall we wander? Where, and how, shall we set our feet? You are everything, though you seem as if you are not. How then shall I look? Your Name itself is all the worship, the prayer, the chanting, the garland, the incense, the lamp, the food-offering, the fruit, the betel. Tuka says: in your Name we offer up this handful of flowers.
What it means
Tukaram faces a real difficulty for the lover of an all-pervading God: if the Lord already fills everything and overflows, what is there to offer, and where could you even turn to make the offering? Question after question, he shows that every ordinary tool of worship, restraining the senses, keeping vows, chanting, meditating, going on pilgrimage, has no separate ground to stand on, because nothing exists apart from God. The puzzle is that God is everything and yet seems hidden, so that the worshipper cannot find a spot outside him from which to bow. The resolution is the Name. Since the Name itself contains all the rites, the incense and lamp and food and flowers, to utter it is to perform the whole of worship at once. Devotion is not adding something to God; it is offering him back to himself.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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