Inner experience, made of You, nothing lacking
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुज च पासाव जालोंसों निर्माण । असावें तें भिन्न कासयानें ॥1॥
पाहावा जी ठायीं करूनि विचार । नुन्य कोठें फार असे चि ना ॥ध्रु.॥
ठेविलिये ठायीं आज्ञोचें पाळण । करूनि जतन राहिलोंसें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणें आतां बोलतसें स्पष्ट । जालों क्रियानष्ट तुह्माऐसा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
From You alone I have come into being. Why should what is, be separate from You? Look, having deliberated here: there is nowhere any excess or lack at all. In the place where I was kept, nurturing it, preserving it carefully, I have remained. Says Tuka, now I speak plainly. I have become kriyaanashta, like You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
From You alone I came into being. Why should what is be separate from You? Look, after thinking it over here: there is nowhere any excess or any lack at all. In the place where I was set, I have stayed, tending it, guarding it with care. Tuka says: now I speak plainly. I have become free of all doing, just like You.
What it means
Tukaram traces his whole being back to a single source: he arose from God alone, so he asks why anything that exists should stand apart from God at all. He invites a calm inspection and reports the finding, that nowhere is there any surplus or any want; all is full and complete as it is. He has simply stayed where he was placed, keeping watch over it. The plain confession at the end carries the weight: he has become kriyaanashta, emptied of all sense of being the doer, and in this he says he has become like God. The claim is bold and not to be softened: identity with the divine through the loss of doership.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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