Saint Tukaram
Saint Tukaram was one the greatest devotional poets of the Marathi language. His exemplary genius can be traced in his extraordinary ability to transform the external world into its spiritual analogue. Tukaram’s stature in Marathi literature is no way less than Shakespeare’s in English or Goethe’s in German. He could be called the quintessential Marathi poet, reflecting the genius of the language as well as its characteristic literary culture. No other Marathi writer has so deeply and widely influenced Marathi literary culture. Marathi Poetry as a genre is incomplete without Tukaram.
Key Points and Quotes
• पुण्य पऱउपकार पाप ते परपीडा । आणीक नाही जोडा दुजा यासी ॥१॥
सत्य तोचि धर्म असत्य ते कर्म । आणीक हे वर्म नाही दुजे ॥धृ॥
गति तेचि मुखी नामाचे स्मरण । अधोगति जाण विन्मुख ते ॥२॥
संतांचा संग तोचि स्वर्गवास । नर्क तो उदास अनर्गळा ॥३॥
(Merit consists in doing good to others, sin in doing harm to others. There is no other pair comparable to this. Truth is the only religion (or freedom); untruth is bondage; there is no secret like this. God’s name on one’s lips is itself salvation; disregard (of the name) known to be perdition. The companionship of the good is the only heaven; studious indifference is hell. Tuka says: It is thus clear what is good and what is injurious; let people choose what they will.)
• वेद अनंत बोलिला । अर्थ इतकाचि शोधिला ॥१॥
विठोबासी शरण जावे । निजनिष्ठा नाम गावे ॥धृ॥
सकळ शास्त्रांचा विचार । अंती इतकाचि निर्धार ॥२॥
अठरापुराणी सिद्धांत । तुका म्हणे हाचि हेत ॥३॥
(The essence of the endless Vedas is this: Seek the shelter of God and repeat his name with all thy heart. The result of the cogitations of all the Shastras is also the same; Tuka says: The tenet of the eighteen Puranas is also identical)
• जे का रंजले गांजले । त्यासी म्हणे जो आपुले ॥१॥
तोचि साधु ओळखावा । देव तेथेचि जाणावा ॥धृ॥
मॄदु सबाह्य नवनीत । तैसे सज्जनाचे चित्त ॥२॥
ज्यासी आपंगिता नाही । त्यासी धरी जो हॄदयी ॥३॥
दया करणे जे पुत्रासी । तेचि दासा आणि दासी ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे सांगू किती । तोचि भगवंताची मूर्ती ॥५॥
(Know him to be a true man who takes to his bosom those who are in distress. Know that God resides in the heart of such a one. His heart is saturated with gentleness through and through. He receives as his only those who are forsaken. He bestows on his man servants and maid servants the same affection he shows to his children. Tukaram says: What need is there to describe him further? He is the very incarnation of divinity)
• When one looks into a mirror, it seems as if one is looking at a different object, yet one is looking at oneself. I am the brook that has merged into the river. My country is now the whole universe.
Liberation cannot be purchased in a marketplace, nor can it be acquired by wandering in the woods or forest. Liberation cannot be had by large quantities of wealth, nor can it be found in the upper or nether worlds. Tuka says, Liberation can be acquired, only at the cost of life.
•He who utters the Name of God while walking gets the merit of a sacrifice at every step. His body becomes a place of pilgrimage.
He who repeats God’s Name while working always finds perfect peace.
He who utters the Name of God while eating gets the merit of a fast even though he has taken his meals. Even if one were to give in charity to the whole earth encircled by the seas, it would not equal the merit of repeating the Name.
By the power of the Name, one will know what cannot be known,
One will see what cannot be seen,
One will speak what cannot be spoken,
One will meet what cannot be met.
Tuka says that incalculable is the gain that is conies from repeating the Name of God.
•The Saint becomes so unified with God, that it is impossible to distinguish between God and Saint.
Embrace meets embrace.
The body is unified with the body.
Words mix with words.
Eyes meet with eyes.
I have girded up my loins and found a way to cross the ocean of life.
Come here, come here, great and small, women and men.
Take no thought; have no anxiety.
I shall carry all of you to the other shore.
A come as the sole bearer of the stamp of God
to carry you over with His Name.
Detailed Biography
Sant Tukaram (1609-1650) was born in Dehu, a small village near Pune, not far away from Alandi, the Sanjivan-samadhi of Sant Jnaneshvar. Both towns lie on the banks of the river Indrayani. The year of birth and death of Sant Tukaram has been a subject of research and dispute among 20th-century scholars. Sant Tukaram was born to Kanakar and Bolhoba More, and scholars consider his family to belong to the Kunbi caste. His childhood was spent in great comfort and luxury because the family was prosperous. He was initiated into education by the pantoji (the non-formal village teacher). The alphabet was learnt with the help of pebbles that gave form to each letter. Tukaram’s family owned a retailing and money-lending business along with agriculture and trade. His parents were devotees of Vithoba, an avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu (Vaishnavas). Both his parents died when Tukaram was 17 years old. Sant Tukaram’s first wife was Rakhama Bai, and they had a son named Santu. Initially, he showed a good hand with his father’s business, but gradually, he ran into losses. In a terrible famine, his first wife Rakhuma, and his elder son starved to death. Initially, he showed a good hand with his father’s business, but then adversity struck, and gradually, he ran into losses. Though he strove hard, borrowed money and tried various trades, he was driven to bankruptcy and penury. The village council humiliated him and stripped him of his ‘mahajan’ title! The deaths and widespread poverty had a profound effect on Tukaram, who became contemplative, meditating on the hills of the Sahyadri range (Western Ghats) and later wrote he “had discussions with my own self”.Tukaram married again, and his second wife was Avalai Jija Bai.
It is common knowledge that merchants and money lenders take the greatest undue advantage of a famine. Even today, we see such people, who achieve their nefarious ends by creating a situation of artificial scarcity.
However, Tukaram was not a heartless businessman to insist on repayment when people were suffering untold misery. On the contrary, keeping aside his personal grief, he came forward to help the famine-hit population generously. ‘Much had been spent. There was some left, which was given away to Brahmins and alms-seekers,’ he says in a couplet. This, however, should not be construed to mean (as is generally done) that Tukaram allowed himself to become bankrupt. It was with great courage and resilience that Tukaram faced the bereavement of his near and dear ones and the blows dealt by natural calamities and the family’s dwindling fortunes. He faced them all and did not run away from them. He never was an escapist. He was desirous of conquest in the work-a-day life. All these disasters made him evaluate money, the human situation, and human relationships. He set out for the Bhamnath Mountain in search of truth. No coming back till he found the immortal truth. That was his determination. Wild animals attacked him, and reptiles troubled him, but Tukaram remained undeterred. His perseverance reached fruition on the fifteenth day when he encountered Eternal Truth.
Devastated by the horrors of the famine and failure after failure to make a living, he now turned whole-heartedly to their family deity Vitthala. Tukaram’s family were devoted to Varkaris going back for generations. One of his ancestors, Vishvambar, was so attracted to Lord Vitthala that he would walk the distance of 250 km to Pandharpur twice a month for Ekadashi! Moved by this great ‘love-toil’ of their bhakta, Vitthal and Rukmini manifested in two black stone murtis in Dehu itself and became Tukaram’s ancestral deities. He spent most of his later years in devotional worship, community kirtans and composing Abhanga poetry.
Tukaram’s spiritual teacher was Babaji Chaitanya, who himself was a fourth-generation disciple of the 13th-century scholar Jnanadeva.
Saint Tukaram and Chhatrapati Shivaji
The Guru of Great Hindu King Shivaji, Sant Samarth Ramdas, had asked him to meet Tukaram. Shivaji decided to meet Tukaram. Once he met him and understood his greatness. He started frequently visiting Tukaram.When Shivaji went to meet the saint Tukaram, he took expensive clothes, jewellery and gold coins along with him to gift the Saint. Tukaram refused to accept the Kings’ offerings and said, ‘What use is this treasure to us (for saint), we want only Lord Vithoba. Your gesture shows your generosity, but, to us, it is as pebbles. Wealth to us is as undesirable as cow meat.’ He advised Shivaji to recite the name of God and become a servant of Lord Vithoba.
Shivaji was so impressed by the saint’s words and became a devotee of Tukaram. Observing Shivaji’s devotional shift, the saint reminded him and his soldiers the importance of abiding by their Kshatra (warrior) way of life. ‘We should preach to the world, but you should abide by the Kshatra way of life. He understood the essence of saint’s advice and set the milestones of Hindu glory, good governance and cultural upliftment. There are several stories documented that demonstrate that the saint Tukaram provided a “spiritual background to the political aims of Shivaji. “Their continued interaction is the subject of study for legends. Eleanor Zelliot states that Bhakti movement poets, including Tukaram, were influential in Shivaji’s rise to power.
Impact of Saint Tukaram on Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi, in the early 20th century, while under arrest in Yerwada Central Jail by the British colonial Government for his non-violent movement, read and translated Tukaram’s poetry along with Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and poems by other Bhakti movement poet-saints. Saint Tukaram took his last breath in 1649 or 1650.
Tukaram’s Literary Significance
Tukaram Gatha is a Marathi language compilation of his works, likely to have been composed between 1632 and 1650. Also called Abhanga Gatha, the Indian tradition believes it includes some 4,500 abhangas, but modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of most of them. The poems considered authentic cover a wide range of human emotions and life experiences, some autobiographical, and place them in a spiritual context. He includes a discussion about the conflict between Pravritti – having a passion for life, family, business, and Nivritti – the desire to renounce and leave everything behind for individual liberation, moksha.
The Teachings of Tukaram
No human being would ever attain happiness in life until there was a place for God in it. No happiness would be possible until mortals made God a part of their lives.
‘Look at my experience. I made God my own and He gave the answers to my questions whenever and wherever I put those to Him.’
It was destiny that led Tukaram’s worldly affairs to destruction. It was through divine benediction that he attained a great spiritual height. Whereas destiny was uncontrollable, God had to abide by the restriction put by the love of the devotee.
‘The devotee’s love is like the leash, Hari goes wherever He is led.’
Such divine love is attained through perpetual remembrance of Him.
‘We should recite Your name, You should give us your love.’
Love is abundant wherever saints live. A perpetual give-and-take of love forms a part of their whole enterprise. Otherwise, no one, including even scholars and the knowledgeable, have no idea of the bliss offered by devotion. It is such love that binds the whole society together and does away with all differences and discrimination. It is such love that makes man’s life happy and prosperous. This heavenly love is obtained from remembering the Almighty and from association with the saints. It transforms unhappiness and happiness and, indeed, transforms life itself.
COUNSEL
‘No point in offering advice where it goes unheeded, now the only advice henceforth is that keep your life from going waste.
For your valuable life goes waste if no thought is given to it, thus sings Tuka, thus is his advice.
Tuka says undertake that enterprise, which takes care of your interests, what more can one teach in this respect.
The one who is alive to what is good for him makes his parents extremely happy.
Even God is delighted by the pious behaviour of the sons and daughters born in such a family.Geeta and Bhagawat should be heard and meditation should centre round Lord Vithoba. For there is great benefit in contemplating Him with a clean and clear mind, says Tuka.’
BENEFITS OF SAINTLY ASSOCIATION
‘Never keep the company of bad people; always strive to be in the company of saints.
Uplift of the downtrodden is the greatness of saints, therefore, abjure the bad and hanker after the saints.
Make money through honest means only and amass it with a detached mind.’
It may be seen that the teachings of Tukaram centre round good thought, impeccable deportment and equality. He never hesitated in calling a spade a spade while disseminating messages for the benefit of human welfare.
Social Reforms
Tukaram accepted disciples and devotees without discriminating gender or caste. One of his celebrated devotees was Bahina Bai, a Brahmin woman, who faced anger and abuse of her husband when she chose Bhakti marga and Tukaram as her guru.
Tukaram taught, states Ranade, that “pride of caste never made any man holy”, “the Vedas and Shastras have said that for the service of God, castes do not matter”, “castes do not matter, it is God’s name that matters”, and “an outcast who loves the Name of God is verily a Brahmin; in him have tranquility, forbearance, compassion and courage made their home”. However, early 20th-century scholars questioned whether Tukaram himself observed caste when his daughters from his second wife married men of their own caste. Fraser and Edwards, in their 1921 review of Tukaram, stated that this is not necessarily so because people in the West, too, generally prefer relatives to marry those of their own economic and social strata.
David Lorenzen states that the acceptance, efforts, and reform of the role of Tukaram in the Varakari-sampraday follow the diverse caste and gender distributions found in Bhakti movements across India. Tukaram, of Shudra Varna, was one of the nine non-Brahmins, of the twenty-one considered sant in Varakari-sampradaya tradition. The rest include ten Brahmins and two whose caste origins are unknown. Of the twenty-one, four women are celebrated as saints, born in two Brahmin and two non-Brahmin families. Tukaram’s effort at social reforms within Varakari-sampradaya must be viewed in this historical context and as part of the overall movement
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