Nature of God, the mother who plays at quarrels
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भांडवी माउली कवतुकें बाळा । आपणा सकळां सािक्षत्वेसीं ॥1॥
माझी माझी ह्मणे एकएकां मारी । हें तों नाहीं दुरी उभयतां ॥ध्रु.॥
तुझें थोडें भातें माझें बहु फार । छंद करकर वाद मिथ्या ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एके ठायीं आहे वर्म । हें चि होय श्रम निवारितें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mother playfully sets her children quarreling, watching as a witness to them all. "Mine, mine," she says, making each one hit the other, though in truth there is no distance between any of them. "You have little; I have much more." Such petty disputes and squabbles are all false. Says Tuka, the secret lies in one place alone, and that is what puts an end to all strife.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mother sets her children squabbling for fun, watching them all as a witness. "Mine, mine," she makes them say, setting each to strike the other, though in truth there is no distance between any of them. "You have a little; I have far more." Such fussing and false disputes. Tuka says: the secret lies in one single place, and that alone ends all the strife.
What it means
Tukaram pictures God as a mother who playfully eggs her children into rivalry while she watches, untroubled, knowing they are all one family. The children fight over mine and yours, who has more, but their quarrels are make-believe, because no real separation divides them. The frame the poem supplies is the world of "mine" and "more," all our possessive disputes, seen as a game God watches from within. The teaching lands in the last line: there is one place, one truth, where this difference dissolves, and finding it is what ends every quarrel. The listener is asked to see through the game of separateness to the single ground beneath it.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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