Tukaram. (1608-1649)
I was sleeping when Namdeo and Vitthal stepped into my dream.
"Your job is to make poems. Stop wasting time," Namdeo said.
Vitthal gave me the measure and gently aroused me from a dream inside a dream.
Namdeo vowed to write one billion poems.
"Tuka, all the unwritten ones are your responsibility." So said Vithoba.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To repeat Your name is to string pearls together.
The pleasure in your manifested form is always new.
I have ceased to desire the unembodied God.
Your worshippers do not seek liberation.
With You, it is still possible to give and to receive.
What use is the place where a dish is set, then it is taken away?
Tuka says, "Give me the gift of freedom from fear.
After all, O Lord who pervades the world, I know the world is You."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Without a worshipper, how can God assume a form and accept service?
The one makes the other beautiful, as a gold setting shows off a jewel.
Who but God can make the worshipper free from desires?
Tuka says, "They are drawn to each other like mother and child."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am not starved for want of food, but it is Janardana who deserves my reverence.
I have looked on God as one who sees everything, on bright and dark days, alike.
God is like a father with his child,
who both feels and gives pleasure at the same time.
Good acts and bad acts vanish.
Tuka says, "God's glory alone is left."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is why I have left my house and gone to the forest.
My love will be spoiled by the evil eye.
I will lose my love for Him.
I will not listen to this doctrine of unity.
Tuka says, "This doctrine that God and I are one is false.
I will not let it interfere with me."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just beyond us we see that purple lustre - how glorious!
With His noble crown of peacock feathers stitched together.
As you look upon Him, fever and illusion vanish
Adore then the Prince of the Yadavas, the Lord of Yogis.
He who filled with passion the sixteen thousand eight royal damsels,
Fair Creatures, divine maidens.
He stands upon the river bank with the lustre of one million moons.
It is fastened in jewels on His neck
And merges into the lustre of His form.
This God who bears the wheel is the chief of the Yadavas.
Him the thirty three crores of demi-gods adore.
The demons tremble before Him.
His dark blue countenance destroys sin.
How fair are His feet with saffron stained!
How fortunate is the brick that is grasped by His feet!
The very thought of Him makes fire cool.
Therefore embrace Him with experience of your own.
The sages, as they see His face, contemplate Him in the spirit,
The Father of the World stands before them in bodily shape.
Tuka is frenzied after Him; His purple form ravages the mind
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If men are habitations of God, we should fall at their feet
But we should leave alone their habits and goals.
Fire is good to drive away cold
But you must not tie it up
And carry it around in a cloth.
A scorpion or a snake is a habitation of Narayana;
You may worship Him from afar, but you must not touch Him.
His abhangas, or "unbroken" hymns, are among the most famous Indian poems.
The son of a shopkeeper, Tukaram was orphaned in childhood. Failing in business and family life, he renounced the world and became an itinerant ascetic. It is believed that he threw himself into a river and drowned. Tukaram is thought to have written over 4,000 abhangas, most of which were addressed to Vithoba.
He was born at town Dehu near Pune in the year 1608. He died at an age of 41 years.
Pandharpur lies along the Bhima River, west of Sholapur city. Easily reached by road and rail, it is a religious town visited throughout the year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims. Four major annual festivals are held in the town in honour of the deities Vithoba, an incarnation of Vishnu, and his consort, Rukmini. The main temple was built in the 12th century by the Yadavas of Devagiri. The town is also associated with the Maharashtra poet-saints devoted to the Bhakti cult.
Tukaram is the greatest poet in the Marathi language. Tukaram's genius partly lies in his ability to transform the external world into its spiritual analogue. Tukaram's stature in Marathi literature is comparable to that of Shakespeare in English or Goethe in German. He could be called the quintessential Marathi poet reflecting the genius or the language as well as its characteristic literary culture. There is no other Marathi writer who has so deeply and widely influenced Marathi literary culture since. Poetry is incomplete without Tukaram.
Tukaram is considered as the climactic point of the Bhāgawat Hindu tradition, which is thought to have begun in Maharashtra with Nāmdev. Dnyāneshwar, Nāmdev, Janābai, Eknāth, and Tukaram are revered especially in the wārakari (वारकरी) sect in Maharashtra.
Tukaram's public religious discourses ("कीर्तने") used to be mixed, by tradition, with poetry, which included some of his own compositions. His discourses focused on day-to-day behavior of human beings, and he emphasized that the true expression of religion was in a person's love for his fellow human beings rather than in ritualistic observance of religious orthodoxy, including mechanical study of the Vedās. His teachings encompassed a wide array of issues, including the importance of the ecosystem.
Tukaram worked for his society's enlightenment in the "warakari" tradition, which emphasizes community service and musical group worship.
Like Namdev, Janabai, and Eknath, Tukaram wrote in archaic Marathi a large number of devotional poems identified in Marathi as abhang (अभंग). A collection of 4,500 abhang known as the Gāthā is attributed to Tukaram. Mantra Geetā, a Marathi translation in abhang form of the Sanskrit Bhagavad Geetā, is also attributed to him. It is an interpretation of Geeta from a Bhakti (भक्ती) --devotional—perspective
Sant Tukaram's compositions are found in Guru Granth Sahib. According to Sikhism, when a person reaches a state of enlightenment, God speaks through that person. That person doesn't speak for himself, God speaks through him. Sikh gurus recognized the state of enlightenment of Tukaram and hence Tukaram's poetry was included in Guru Granth Sahib which, in addition to six Sikh guru's compositions, contains the poetry of 15 other saints of India including Hindus and Muslims.
