Inner experience, the mind turned guardian
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मन वोळी मना । बुिद्ध बुद्धी क्षण क्षणां ॥1॥
मी च मज राखण जालों । ज्याणें तेथें चि धरिलों ॥ध्रु.॥
जें जें जेथें उठी। तें तें तया हातें कुंटी ॥2॥
भांजिली खांजनी । तुका साक्ष उरला दोन्ही ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The mind folds back into itself; intellect dissolves into intellect, moment by moment. I have become my own guardian, held fast in that very place. Whatever rises anywhere, it is checked right there by its own hand. The tambourine has been broken. Says Tuka, only the witness of both remains.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The mind folds back into the mind. The intellect dissolves into intellect, moment after moment. I have become my own watchman, held fast in that very place by the one who holds me. Whatever rises, wherever it rises, is checked right there by its own hand. The tambourine is broken. Tuka says: only the witness of both now remains.
What it means
Tukaram is reporting an inward turning where the faculties no longer reach outward but collapse back into their own source. Mind sinks into mind, intellect into intellect, and he finds himself standing guard over himself, fixed in place by the very power that grasped him. The striking claim is that nothing needs to be suppressed from outside: each impulse that arises is stopped by its own hand in the same instant it appears. The broken tambourine is the end of the noisy activity that used to keep the music going. When the rising and the checking both fall silent, what is left is not another thought but the bare witness of both.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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