Inner experience, the formless and the form
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निर्गुणाचे घ्यावें गुणासी दर्शन । एकाएकीं भिन्न भेद घडे ॥1॥
तुह्मां आह्मां आतां न पडे यावरी । आहों तें चि बरी जेथें तेथें ॥ध्रु.॥
आपणापासुनी नसावें अंतर । वेचिलें उत्तर ह्मणउनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अंगा आली कठिन्यता । आमच्या अनंता तुह्मां ऐसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The nirguna must take darshan of the saguna. Suddenly, separateness and difference arise. Between You and me, no such thing falls now. We are as we are, wherever we are. There should be no distance from one's own self. The answer has been spent, and so it is. Says Tuka, firmness has come upon this body. Our Ananta, such is Your nature.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The formless must take darshan of the form. All at once, separateness and difference arise. Now nothing of that kind falls between You and me. We are as we are, wherever we are. There should be no distance from one's own self. The answer has been spent, and so it stands. Tuka says: a firmness has come upon this body. Our Ananta, such is Your own nature.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the meeting point of the nirguna and the saguna, the formless God and God with form. The moment the formless looks upon a form, separateness and difference spring up, the very gap between worshipper and worshipped. But he says that gap has now closed between him and God: they simply are as they are, with no distance left, since there can be no separation from one's own self. He reports a firmness, a settledness, that has come over his whole being. The closing turn gives the reason: this unshakable nature is God's own, Ananta's, and Tukaram has come to share in it, so the steadiness in him is really the steadiness of God.
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