THE
HERITAGE OF INDIA
Joint
Editors
(The Right Reverend V. S. Azariah,
Bishop of Dornakal.
I J. N. Farquhar, M.A., D.Litt. (Oxon.
Already published.
The Heart of Buddhism. K. J. Saunders, M.A.
Asoka. Rev. J. M. Macphail, M.A., M.D.
Indian Painting. Principal Percy Brown, Calcutta.
Kanarese Literature. Rev. E. P. Rice, B.A.
The Samkhya System. Prof. A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L.
D.Litt.
Subjects proposed and volumes under preparation.
SANSKRIT AND P.* LI LITERATURE.
Hymns from the Vedas. Prof. A. A. Macdonell, Oxford.
Anthology of Mahayana Literature. Prof. L. de la Vallee
Poussin, Ghent.
Selections from the Upanisads. F. J. Western, M.A., Delhi.
Scenes from the Ramayana. James Morison, M.A., Ph.D.
Oxford.
Selections from the Mahabharata.
THE PHILOSOPHIES.
The Philosophy of the Upanisads. Prof. Franklin Edgerton,
University of Pennsylvania.
Sarikara's Vedanta. A. K. Sharma, M.A., Patiala.
Ramanuja's Vedanta.
The Buddhist System.
FINE ART AND MUSIC.
Indian Architecture. R. L. Ewing, B.A., Madras.
Indian Sculpture. Principal W. M. Zumbro, Madura.
Indian Music. Rev. H. A. Popley, B.A., Erode.
The Minor Arts. Principal Percy Brown, Calcutta.
Indian Coins. C. J. Brown, M.A. (Oxon.), Lucknow.
BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT INDIANS.
Gautama Buddha. K. J. Saunders, M.A., Rangoon.
Ramanuja.
Akbar. F. V. Slack, M.A., Calcutta.
Tulsidas. S. K. Datta, B.A., M.B., Ch.B., Lahore.
Sir Rabindranath Tagore. E. J. Thompson, M.A., Bankura.
VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
The Kurral. Rev. H. A. Popley, B.A., Erode.
Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints. G. E. Phillips, M.A. and
Francis Kingsbury, B.A., Bangalore.
Hymns of the Alvars. Rev. J. S. M. Hooper, M.A., Madras.
Hymns of Hindustan.
Hymns of Bengali Singers. E. J. Thompson, M.A., Bankura.
Gujarat! Hymns.
HISTORIES OF VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
Bengali. C. S. Paterson, M.A., Calcutta.
Gujarat!.
Hindi.
Marathi. Nicol Macnicol, M.A., D.Litt., Poona.
Tamil. Francis Kingsbury, B.A., Bangalore.
Telugu.
Sinhalese. H. S. Perera, B.A., Kandy.
VILLAGE LIFE.
Modern Folk Tales. W. Norman Brown, M.A., Ph.D.,
Philadelphia.
Indian Village Government.
EDITORIAL PREFACE
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things.
No section of the population of India can afford to
neglect her ancient heritage. In her literature, philosophy,
art, and regulated life there is much that is worthless, much
also that is distinctly unhealthy ; yet the treasures of
knowledge, wisdom, and beauty which they contain are too
precious to be lost. Every citizen of India needs to use
them, if he is to be a cultured modern Indian. This is as
true of the Christian, the Muslim, the Zoroastrian as of the
Hindu. But, while the heritage of India has been largely
explored by scholars, and the results of their toil are laid
out for us in their books, they cannot be said to be really
available for the ordinary man. The volumes are in most
cases expensive, and are often technical and difficult.
Hence this series of cheap books has been planned by a
group of Christian men, in order that every educated
Indian, whether rich or poor, may be able to find his way
into the treasures of India's past. Many Europeans, both
in India and elsewhere, will doubtless be glad to use the
series.
The utmost care is being taken by the General Editors
in selecting writers, and in passing manuscripts for the
press. To every book two tests are rigidly applied : every-
thing must be scholarly and everything must be sympathetic.
The purpose is to bring the best out of the ancient
treasuries, so that it may be known, enjoyed, and used.
VITHOBA OF PANDHARPUR.
THE HERITAGE OF INDIA
PSALMS OF MARATHA
SAINTS
One Hundred and Eight Hymns
translated from the Marathi
NICOL MACN1COL, M.A., D.Litt.
Author of "Indian Theism."
ASSOCIATION PRESS
5, RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA
LONDON : OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE,
BOMBAY, AND MADRAS
PRINTED AT THE WESLEYAN MISSION PRESS
MYSORE CITY.
442867
PREFACE
This collection contains translations of one hundred
and eight poems by some of the chief Vaisnavite poets of
the Maratha country. The number seemed not inap-
propriate in view of the fact that there are one hundred
and eight tulsl beads on the rosary worn by the Vaisnav-
ite devotee. Almost every one of these poems is a prayer,
a cry of the saint to the god of his worship.
It has not been an easy matter to decide which poems
should be selected for translation. Some have been chosen
because they have a place in the regular worship of the
devotees, as repeated daily by the Varkar'is or adherents of
the Pandharpur sect or sung in their bhajans or song
services. But it was not easy to make a selection from so
immense a body of literature as these poets have pro-
duced. I accordingl> applied to Sir R. G. Bhandarkar with
a request that he would assist me in making a choice, and
he most kindly responded by furnishing me with a list of fifty
abhahgs of Tukaram from those which he uses for his
daily and weekly religious exercises. To anyone who
knows Sir Ramkrishna Bhandarkar as not only a great
Oriental scholar but the outstanding representative in
India to-day of the ancient school of bhakti, the fact that
these psalms minister nourishment to a spiritual life so
beautiful and so sincere is in itself sufficient testimony to
their religious value. For him, as for these saints, the
life of the spirit is the only life livable, and fellowship with
God its purpose and its goal. When one has known
Sir Ramkrishna Bhandarkar the religion of these saints
6 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
ceases to be of merely antiquarian interest. He is one of
them still left among us for our reverence, and the strength
and purity and tenderness of their devotion live again in
him.
To other friends as well I have to acknowledge a
deep debt of gratitude. I am very conscious of my own
limitations as a student of the MarathI language. I know
how easy it is to misunderstand an allusion or to mis-
interpret a phrase in these poems. Ideas their authors
are born to, and live by, we of the West grasp only with
an effort. For that reason a foreigner's renderings must
often be very imperfect. Mine would be much more
imperfect even than they are, were it not for the kindness
of two friends, Professor W. B. Patwardhan, of the
Fergusson College, Poona, and Dr. V. A. Sukhtankar,
of Indore. They have both read the proofs and have given
me many criticisms and suggestions. I have to acknow-
ledge with much gratitude this help. I have tried to
improve the translations in many instances in accordance
with their suggestions, but I am well aware that I have not
by any means succeeded in removing all their defects. If,
however, this little book awakens a wider interest in a
little-known company of sincere singers and in their
religion of passionate longing for the divine fellowship,
I shall feel richly rewarded.
Poona, N. M.
August, 1919.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Note
JNANESVAR
I. The Great Hearted
II. The Rapture of devotion
III. Aequanimitas
IV. Truth
V. "Cry Ham "
VI. The Name
VII. " There Needs Not a Propitious Hour
VIII. The Storehouse of Bliss
MUKTA BAI
IX. The Land of Topsy-turvy
X. A Remonstrance
NAMDEV
XI. " Gone a. e the Saints '
XII. The Heart's Desire
XIII. "O Haste and Come"
XIV. A Vow
XV. One Thing
XVI. A Bitter Cry
XVII. Seeking ..
XVIII. "My Mother Thou"
XIX. The Men of Faith
XX. The Reign of Peace
XXI. "Who Vasudev in All Can See'
XXII. Illumination
pace
11
34
42
42
43
44
44
44
45
46
46
47
47
JANABAI
XXIII. PUNDLIK ..
XXIV. Grinding ..
XXV. The Besetting God
■
■■
■
M
M
1 '
■
1
■
I VII H* i
I X 1 1 i
I
I XVII
I II,
I X I
I
I X V I -
titrorf
■
I
i i
r
-I
H
I
i
m
S3
us
m
Ill
PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
CI. The Divine Inspiration
CI I. Drowning Men
CIII. Without and Within
CIV. " And Have Not Charity
CV. The Mendicant
CVI. The Proud Advaitist
CVII. The Hypocrite: I
CVIII. The Hypocrite : II
Bibliography
Index I
Index II
90
90
91
93
95
INTRODUCTION
The period of the Maratha renaissance, during which
the great poets and saints of Maharastra flourished,
extends from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.
This literary revival found its impulse in a religious
awakening. It is indeed appropriate to call the poets
of this period psalmists, because their most characteristic,
certainly their most popular, work consisted of short
lyrical utterances, called abhaiigs, which usually express
religious longing or describe religious experience. All those
whose work is represented in this volume were Vaisnavites,
adherents of the bhakti sect, whose members, while
they are to be found at many different periods and in many
different districts of India, and while they worshipped a
variety of deities, are united in seeking to reach God by
the path of bhakti, or loving devotion. Most of these saints
were at the same time, according to the tradition, ardent
devotees of Vithoba if Pandharpur. How the shrine of
this god became the high place of bhakti worship in the
Maratha country we cannot now tell. It is sufficient to
say that around it and its god, Vithoba or Vitthal, whose
name is believed by some scholars to be a corruption of
Visnu and who is identified with Krisna, has gathered for
many centuries the devotion of a great company of
worshippers, who come there on pilgrimage singing songs
of praise. Those saints who in their lives centuries ago
had been devoted to the god are still borne in palankins,
in which are placed models of their holy footprints, to the
presence of Vithoba in this village on the river Bhima.
On Bhima's banks all gladness is
In Pandhari, abode of bliss.
This is the refrain of many a song that is re-echoed by
the choirs of singers that journey with eager expectation
12 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
year by year, to this Deccan village to look upon the face
of the god.
There is little outwardly to distinguish the worship at
this shrine from that of a hundred others throughout the
land. The image is rudely fashioned and has no grace of
form. 1 The worship is that which is commonly performed
in any Hindu temple. What gives it its distinctive char-
acter is the special song-services, the klrtans and bhajans
that are conducted for the instruction of pilgrims, and in
which their deep religious emotion finds its fullest utterance.
Great numbers of pilgrims sit for hours at Pandharpur and
the other village centres of the cult, listening to the exhor-
tations of some famous preacher or Haridas, who bases his
discourse upon verses from such poet-saints as Jfiandev or
Ekanath or Tukaram. With the teaching is skilfully
combined the singing of a choir. These klrtans have a
profound emotional effect upon the multitudes gathered in
eager expectation at the holy place. The songs of the old
saints awaken, and in some degree satisfy, the deep desires
of their hearts. So also groups will gather for what are
called bhajans, when there is no preaching but they con-
tinue often for hours singing those songs of longing and
of ecstacy.
It would be easy to show that this religious and intel-
lectual awakening was part of a movement widely spread
throughout India. It is, however, only with the Maratha
poet saints that we are here concerned. In its influence
upon all strata of society this movement, in the opinion of
Mr. M. G. Ranade, was far more powerful than the corres-
ponding movement in northern and eastern India. Cer-
tainly its leaders were drawn from every class, from the
highest to the humblest. " Roughly speaking," says Mr.
Ranade in his Rise of the Maratha Power, "we may state
that the history of the religious revival in Maharastra
covers a period of nearly five hundred years, and during
this period some fifty saints and prophets flourished in this
land who left their mark upon the country and its people.
A few of these saints were women, a few were Muham-
1 See frontispiece.
INTRODUCTION 13
madan converts to Hinduism, nearly half of them were
Brahmans, while there were representatives in the other
half from among all the other castes, Marathas, kanbis,
tailors, gardeners, potters, goldsmiths, repentant prostitutes,
and slave girls, even the out-caste Mahars." From the
traditional account of some of these saints, as well as
from a study of their voluminous poems, we can form
some conception of the character of this remarkable
movement.
The earliest of them all, a dimly discerned but power-
ful figure, is a Brahman, named Jnanesvar, whose chief
work, the Jfiauesvari, can be dated with certainty, having
been completed in the year A.D. 1290. " Jfianesvar's influ-
ence," says Mr. Ranade, " has been greater than that of
any other Maratha sadhn (saint) except Tukaram. . . .
Jnanesvar appeals to the pantheistic tendencies of our
people's intellect, while the charm of Tukaram and
Namdev lies in their appeal to the heart and in the subjective
truth of the experiences felt by them in common with all
who are religious by nature." To the common people the
author of the Jhdncsvari is little more than the shadow of
a great name, but it is a name that is linked with that of
Tukaram in the songs that they sing as they go on pil-
grimage to the shrine at Pandharpur. As they go they
chant two names in chorus, as the names of the chief
prophets of their faith, " Jrianoba, Tukaram ; Jnanoba,
Tukaram." These two, the one in the thirteenth and the
other in the seventeenth century, may, with Namdev,
whom we may place between them in the fourteenth
century, be taken as representative in their life and in their
influence of the whole of this social and religious quicken-
ing in the Maratha country. From the traditional
accounts of these saints — even though these are largely
legendary and unreliable — as well as from the specimens
of their voluminous poems that are translated here, we may
be able to form some conception of the character of this
remarkable movement.
The life of Jnanesvar is surrounded by many obscurities.
Much controversy has centred round the question whether
there were not really two Jnanesvars, the one the author
2
14 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
of the Jhdncsvari and the Amrit Anubhav — both of them
poems of a philosophical or theological character — the
other the author of abhahgs or short lyrics, the utterances
of a much more popular and personal religion. The
question is one which cannot be investigated here, but it
must be admitted that the hypothesis that there were
really two of the name resolves some difficulties which the
traditional history undoubtedly presents. If, however, we
accept the traditional account, this Brahman poet belonged
to Aland!, a village twelve miles north of Poona. His
father had come there when on pilgrimage and had married
a woman of the place, but, presently, he resumed his
wandering, and proceeded to Benares. He spent some
time there under the instruction of a guru, or spiritual teacher,
but presently the sannyasi, in defiance of religious law and
usage, resumed his family duties and returned to Alandi.
Three sons and a daughter were born to him, but when
this grave irregularity of conduct was known he was
excommunicated. The persecution that he and his wife
had to endure is said to have caused them to commit
suicide, but their inheritance of trouble passed to the
children, who suffered much at the hands of the
Brahmans.
Jnanesvar's two brothers, Nivrittinath, who was the
eldest of the family, and Sopandev, and his sister,
Muktabai, are all said to have been, like himself, saints
and poets. Some of the legendary tales that have been
handed down furnish indications of the conflict with
Brahmanical authority and orthodoxy, which evidently
centred around these " sannyasi' s children." Jnanesvar is
said to have confounded his Brahman persecutors by
causing a buffalo to recite the Vedas, though these are
scriptures that only the twice-born may read. He is
alleged, on another occasion, to have gone riding on a wall
to meet a famous Brahman yogi and miracle-worker, who,
to impress young heretics, was approaching him riding on
a tiger with a snake for a whip.
The work upon which Jnanesvar's fame chiefly rests
is the J nduesvari, a free and copious paraphrase in Marathi
verse of the Bhagavadgitd. The seven hundred slokas of
INTRODUCTION 15
the Gita are here expanded into ten thousand verses.
This poem forms, perhaps, the most important work in all
Marathi literature, and has exercised a unique influence
both upon the thought and upon the language of Maha-
rastra. The fact that Jnanesvar used the people's language
to convey thoughts hitherto concealed in Sanskrit and so
reserved for the learned, was in itself an indication that a
new religious spirit was abroad. What he did for Marathi
has been compared to what Dante did for Italian. He
loved the " national Marathi speech," and showed how it
could convey sweet sounds and " clear thoughts like moon-
light," and how in his verse "lotus flowers spring up in
such abundance." " All the weight and distinction that
the Marathi language possesses," says Mr. M. G. Ranade,
" it owes to Jrianesvar. . . . To realize the depth of meaning
that is contained in the language one must study the
Jnaneivari."
The tradition affirms that Jrianesvar, like most of the
Marathi school of bhakti, was a devotee of Vithoba of
Pandharpur. It is strange, therefore, to find no mention
of this god in either the J nanesvarl, or his other philo-
sophical poem, the Amrit Anubhav. Perhaps it may have
been another and later poet of the same name who is the
author of these shorten songs or psalms, and who is linked
in the legend with the next notable saint of the succession.
This is Namdev, the author of many simple and passionate
lyrics that give expression to varying phases of an ardent
devotion to the god of Pandharpur. The language of
Namdev's verses is much more modern than that of the
JnaneSvari, so that, though the tradition gives his date as
from 1270 to 1350, the probabilities are that Sir R. G.
Bhandarkar is right in placing him a century later. He
was born in a village near Karhad, in the Satara District.
How it came about that Namdev's heart turned with such
passionate adoration to Vithoba is somewhat obscure.
According to one account he bore, like many other saints,
from his infancy the marks of sainthood. The first word
he spoke was " Sri Vitthal " ; he learned nothing at school,
for he cared for nothing but klrtans (services of song).
That is one way in which saints are made, but another is
16 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
the way of conversion, and there seems to be more authority
for the story that Namdev was converted from an evil life
to service of Vithoba. 1 Several abhaiigs — among others
one said to be by his wife — refer to an early career of
lawlessness brought to a sudden end by his contrition at
the tears shed by a woman whom he had made a widow.
In his remorse he would have taken his own life in the
temple of Nagnath, but he found comfort and forgiveness
when he sought instead the presence of the more gracious
Vithoba, and from that day onward he gave himself with
complete devotion to the worship of this god.
The chief religious interest in Namdev's life lies in
tracing a change or development in his thought which his
abhaiigs reveal. At first he is the purely emotional bhakta,
all tears and cries and raptures. Later in his life, however,
he seems to have passed through an experience which
greatly altered his outlook on the world. In the first stage
of his experience Vithoba of Pandhari is the sole object of
his devotion ; he can scarcely tear himself away from the
precincts of his temple. At a later period Vithoba has
become for him no more than a symbol of the supreme
soul that pervades the universe. He is still a bhakta, but
he is no longer visited by the gusts of passion that had
once shaken his soul. An attitude of spiritual indifference
is now his supreme attainment. His faith rests upon a
philosophical interpretation of the universe, which blunts
the sensations which formerly harassed him and brings
him, if not peace, at least passivity. This change, or
growth, is reflected in his abhaiigs, which have not, of
course, come down to us in their historical setting or in
the order of their composition.
One of the members of Namdev's household has also
a place among the Maratha poet saints. This is a Sudra
woman, named Janabai, who, according to the story, became
a domestic slave of the poet because of her admiration of
his devotion. She spent her whole life in his service and
Vithoba's. The god is declared in the legend to have been
1 There is curious confirmation of this in the recently discovered
and very early book Lild Caritra, a scripture of the interesting sect of
Manbhaus
INTRODUCTION 17
constantly in her company, grinding corn for her, drawing
water, helping her to wash the clothes. It is not always clear,
however, whether the abhahgs do not really describe, not
a personal relationship of communion, but a recognition
of the divine immanence in all things. When she says
that, " in the inner shrine of contemplation Pandurang
comes to meet us and clasps us to his breast," it is difficult
to believe that she is not describing an experience of
spiritual fellowship. But when she says, referring to the
household occupations,
Grinding, pounding — this our game,
Burn we up all sin and shame,
there is here more than a suspicion of advaita doctrine.
She is reaching beyond the mdyd, the " sport," of life and
its duties to an identity with Brahman beyond the distinc-
tion of good and evil. This is fully unveiled in another
abkahg, 1 which, after expressing a feeling that has all the
appearance of being parallel to that daily comradeship
with Christ which Christian saints have ever sought,
betrays itself in its conclusion as no more than a meta-
physical affirmation of identity with the All.
The new knowledge that he attained and the changed
outlook that it brought to him are expressed in his prayer
to Vithoba: "Let me see thy face with my eyes every-
where and let all crtatures be my friends." He has not
ceased to follow bhakti, but it is no longer with the simpli-
city of his early love. Far more difficult than to empty
the sea or to measure the sky is " the bhakti of KeSav," for
it requires that all sense of " I " and " thou " shall utterly
disappear. " Ah, God, a single atom of distinction is huge
as Mount Meru." So also the bhakta must realize that
God is in all creatures ; there must be no love of the flesh,
no attachment to the things of sense. He must pass beyond
good and evil, beyond love and hate, beyond all storms and
tempests into the quiet of passivity. Vithoba is now the
one real God to him, but not in the sense, as formerly he
had thought, that all other gods are false and that he dare
not look upon them but only on the idol of Vithoba.
1 No. XXIV, on pp. 49f.
18 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
He is the sole-existent Brahman with " thousands of worlds
in every hair." Namdev's denunciations of idolatry in his
abhahgs may be as much inspired by the contempt of the
philosopher as by the theistic temper that Muhammadan-
ism was beginning at this time to introduce to India. Not
only, however, does he denounce idolatry and, like
Jnanesvar, the gross, popular worships. He brushes aside,
in a fashion that would hardly be possible had he come
under the influence of the author of the Jiianesvarl, the
authority of the sacred scriptures. " Do not study
the Vedas," he says, " needless is scriptural instruction.
Repeat the praises of the Name."
Namdev obtained samadhi at the age of eighty, and is
buried at the great door of the temple of Vithoba at
Pandharpur. Whoever enters to look upon the face of
the god, to whom he rendered such intense devotion, must
step across the place where the saint lies buried. Thus
he remains still, as it were, a stepping stone to the
presence of Vithoba.
But of all the Maratha bhaktas the greatest in the
popular estimation, certainly the widest in the extent of
his influence, is Tukaram. He was a contemporary of
the Maratha national hero, Sivaji, and it can scarcely be
questioned that, by the work that he accomplished in
drawing together by means of a common religious
enthusiasm all classes of the community, he contributed
to the formation under that leader of a Maratha kingdom
sufficiently strong and united to resist with success the
power of the Mogul Empire. The popularity of his
verses has continued undiminished until to-day, and they
are so widely known among all classes of Marathas that
many of them have almost come to have the vogue and
authority of proverbs. They are more familiar throughout
Maharastra than are (or were) in Scotland " the psalms of
David or the songs of Burns." Not only are they prized
by the most illiterate worshipper of Vithoba as the "Veda"
of their sect, but they furnish a large portion of the
psalmody of the reforming Prarthana Samaj, while some
of the greatest of modern Indians, such as M. G. Ranade
and Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, have found in them, perhaps
INTRODUCTION 19
more than in the ancient scriptures, nourishment for
their own religious life.
Tukaram was a Sudra grain-seller and was born in
1608 at Dehu, a village about eighteen miles north-west
of Poona. He had an inherited interest in the god,
Vithoba, for his family for at least seven generations had
been devout worshippers of the god and had regularly
visited hir shrine at Pandharpur. One of his abhahgs
gives an account of the process by which he was drawn
from occupation with the world to "lay hold in his heart
of the feet of Vithoba." It gives us a glimpse of one of
those periods of famine that must have been frequent and
terrible in these days. It brought him, he says, to poverty
and shame and sorrow. One of his two wives perished,
and he lets us hear her dying cry, " Food, food." This
experience appears to have been what made htm give
himself with complete devotion to the service of the god.
In another abhahg he tells us how a " king of gurus " came
to him in a dream, and, giving him the mantra or sacred
formula, " Ram, Krisna, Hari," pointed him to "the ship
of Panduraiig." This mysterious teacher is called Babaji,
and he was of the spiritual line of Raghav Caitanya and
Kesav Caitanya. This may possibly indicate that Tukaram
came at some time under the influence of teachers belonging
to the Vaisnavite sect founded by Caitanya in Bengal at the
beginning of the sixteenth century.
The story of Tukaram shows us a man possessing
much unworldly charm of character. His occupation
with religion is, indeed, as in the case of Namdev, a cause
of bitter complaint by his wife. His children can get
nothing to eat for their father lives at the temple. There
are many tales of his unworldliness, such as how the
compassion of the saint — in this respect one of the kin of
St. Francis of Assisi — for " his little sisters, the birds," made
him allow them to have their will of the grain in the corn
fields that he was placed in charge of by the farmer who
owned them. Another story tells how the birds, recogniz-
ing him as " a friend of all the world," perched fearlessly
upon him in the temple court. He does not appear to
have gone on pilgrimage, reckoning such religious practices
20 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
as of no value for the making of men better. Jnanesvar
also had condemned them, but he is said, nevertheless, as
we have seen, to have conformed in this matter to the
established custom. According to a familiar story,
Tukaram refused to travel to Benares, but gave those who
were going there and would have him join them an
unripe gourd, bidding them dip it in the sacred waters of
the Ganges and see if thereby it would become sweet to
taste.
Tukaram is said to have suffered much persecution
from Brahmans, who saw in this Sudra's popularity as a
religious teacher an infringement of their prerogative.
Their opposition is said to have culminated in a command
to him to cast his poems into the river Indrayani, on the
bank of which Dehu stands. He obeyed, but his god
himself intervened and saved them from destruction.
Another story, which appears to be of doubtful authen-
ticity and may have been invented to exalt the poet,
represents Sivaji as in vain inviting the humble saint to
visit his court, and even, under the spell of Tukaram, as
proposing himself to quit his kingdom and give himself up
to a life of contemplation. Tukaram is believed to have
been miraculously translated to Vaikuntha — the heaven of
Visnu — in the year 1649. Several early manuscripts of his
poems, however, have simply the statement noted on
them that in that year on a certain day he "disappeared," or,
according to one of them, " he set out for a holy place."
The most authoritative collection of Tukaram's abhaiigs
contains over 4,600 of these poems. This is far short,
however, of the number that he is credited with having
composed. Namdev is said to have enjoined upon him in
a dream to produce enough to realize the earlier poet's
ambition that the world should possess a hundred crores
or one billion abhaiigs. As a matter of fact, many even of
those that are attributed to him are in all probability for-
geries for which popularity and authority have been sought
by the help of a great name. This, no doubt, has helped
to make still more bewildering the inconsistencies of
thought that appear in Tukaram's work, as in all the work
of these far from logical or systematic thinkers. Nor are
INTRODUCTION 21
the poems arranged in any chronological order. Any
attempt to trace a process of development in the religious
ideas they present must accordingly be largely conjectural.
As a matter of fact, like so many other Hindu teachers
from the days of the risis of the Upanisads, Tukaram is
claimed by various religious schools — by theists and by
pantheistic monists — as an adherent of their views. To
explain his inconsistency, however, it is perhaps sufficient
to say that he was a poet and that he was a Hindu.
When we turn to consider the character of the teach-
ing of these poet-saints and of the influence that by work
so widely popular they exerted and still exert, the first
difficulty that presents itself is this inconsistency, which is
written upon every page of their work. No doubt the
fact that they were Hindus and therefore inheritors in
their blood and in the texture of their thought of that
Hinduism which is as much a spirit, a temperament, as a
system, goes far to explain their mental adjustment to
what appear to us irreconcilable explanations of life and
destiny. Advaita (non-duality) and bhakti are not so
much, we may say, contradictory theories of the universe
as varying moods of the Hindu mind. Certainly bhakti in
large measure was a mood. It was the other half of
advaita, a reaction ot the soul, a feast of that heart which
advaita had starved. It is the deliberate choice, after long
loneliness, of the companionship of God and the saints;
after silence, of song ; after bareness and intellectual
austerity, of the rich colours of affection. And yet, be-
cause it is a reaction and not the result of a reasoned
development, it is apt to lapse back to what it has rebelled
against. It is not intellectually convinced. It represents
a part only of the man and that the part most liable to
fluctuations — his emotional life. Advaita is equally partial,
and hence, perhaps, the oscillations to and fro that mark
their thinking. It would be foolish to labour to reduce
their teaching to logical consistency. The bhakta has his
seasons of warmth and exaltation when the supreme
bliss is to have fellowship with the god of his devotion
and to be conscious of his love, while at other times
22 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
in colder mood he is content to follow the philosophic
path that leads to Nirvana and to nothingness. But
the value and significance of this movement lie in its
affirmation of the claims of the human heart and in
the moral and religious consequences that follow from
that affirmation. These are the elements in it that gave
it its power and enabled it to make an appeal so far reach-
ing and so profound. It was, if we may say so, a splendid
effort of the Hindu soul to break the bondage under whicb
it had lain so long. It at least stirred in its long sleep, and
turned its drowsy eyes towards the dawn.
If there was in it this rebel spirit, then there was no
tyranny within Hinduism that would so challenge it as the
long-established and powerful dominance of caste. A
fervent spirit of devotion is inevitably democratic, just as a
"way of knowledge" is a way reserved for an intellectual
minority while a ceremonial religion strengthens the
power and the pride of a priestly order. The heart and its
emotions are much the same in all men, high or low, and
the road to God along which the affections lead the way
is an open road. It is accordingly to be expected that the
bhakti movement, in so far as it was earnest and sincere,
would oppose Brahman pretentions and caste contempt.
We find this to have been in large measure the case. The
sect of Caitanya admitted to its ranks even Sudras and
Muhammadans and they are said to sing of the saint him-
self in Bengal: "Come see the godman who does not
believe in caste." Kabir is said to have been himself by
birth a Muhammadan who succeeded by strategy in
obtaining admission to the number of Ramananda's
disciples. The Maratha saints were of all castes, from
Brahmans to out-castes. The stories that are told of them,
mingled with legend as they are, reveal a continual
struggle against injustice. We see it in the story of
Jnanesvar's parents and of the saint's own experience
and that of his brothers and sisters. It seems as if
Jnanesvar may have been the centre of a struggle between
the old orthodoxy, entrenched within its caste privileges
and buttressed by its claims to magic powers, and the
new and more living and spiritual faith. We see indi-
INTRODUCTION 23
cations of the same conflict in the case of nearly
every one of Jnanesvar's successors in the bhakti line.
There is evidence, too, both in the traditions of Namdev's
life and in his verses, that as a Sudra he had to face Brahman
contempt, but was sustained by the sympathy of Vithoba.
Ekanath, too, who lived at Paithan towards the close of
the sixteenth century and was himself a Desasth Brahman,
continued the struggle and opposed caste both by precept
and example. As a consequence he is said to have been
out-casted and his poems publicly thrown into the river
Godaveri. Tukaram, as we have seen, was punished in the
same way, according to the story, and he certainly had to
endure much petty persecution because of his denunciation
of caste-exclusiveness. Again, another of the saints of
Pandharpur was a member of the out-caste community
of Mahars. This man, Coka Mela, whose samadki
(memorial) is opposite to the entrance to the great temple
of Vithoba, once, it is said, crossed the threshold of the
temple and was cast out for his impiety. He pled in
excuse that he had been borne in by a divinely created
impulse that he could not resist, and reproached his
enemies in pathetic words for their harshness and
contempt. On another occasion Vithoba himself is said
to have helped him to carry off the carcass of a cow, that
being one of the perquisites permitted to this out-caste
community. These are some indications of what was,
we may conjecture, a continuous struggle throughout
this whole period between the divisive forces of Brahman
exclusiveness and the sense of kinship and unity that the
new religion of faith and fellowship with God inspired.
The message of these poets was opposed to a gross
idolatry ; it frequently denounced immorality and supersti-
tion ; it was generally sincere and earnest and spiritual. No>
doubt there are qualifications that have to be added to
each of these statements if we are to avoid misunder-
standing. Most of these saints were worshippers of the
idol, Vithoba, but they distinguished between their attitude
to this god and that of the superstitious multitude.
A stone with red-lead painted o'er
Brats and women bow before.
24 PSALMS OF MA RATH A SAINTS
When Tukaram says this he implies that he and those like
him looked beyond the idol — Vithoba, "standing on the
brick," as he so often describes him — to something
greater that the idol symbolized and signified. So Namdev
repeatedly denounces idolatry. " No guru can show me
God : wherever I go there are stone gods painted red.
How can a stone god speak ? When will he ever utter
speech ? My mind is weary of those who say, ' God ; god.'
Everywhere I go they say, 'Worship a stone.' He is
God whom Nama beholds in his heart. Nama will never
forsake the feet of Krisna." They also will make no
terms with the impure and degrading worships that they
see around them. The evil cult of Khandoba, the greedy
mendicant, the formal and hypocritical priest, the magic
worker, all these they deal with in much the same fashion
as did Luther and Erasmus with their counterparts in the
Christian Church of Europe.
As theists the Maratha psalmists oppose what a South
Indian follower of bhakti calls " the haughty Vedant creed."
Sometimes they admit that the "way of knowledge" is
higher than the way of faith, but that the heart has its
reasons, to which they feel they must give heed. Sometimes
they go further, and claim their way as the highest.
Tukaram in one of his poems describes how those who
had chosen the path of Brahma knowledge and looked
forward to deliverance from re-birth and to final absorption
turn back under his guidance to the bondage of life, because
with it they can experience a fellowship with God of which
they can have conscious experience. 1 He does not wish to
be merged in the unconsciousness of Brahman, " like the
dew drop in the silent sea." This goal, that so fascinates
the Brahman philosopher wearied with the sorrows of
existence, has no charm for him. Perhaps this is an
indication that life had gained a new interest for the
people of that age, with the awakening of some sense of
brotherhood among men and some hope that there was
love for them in the heart of God. They want to know,
as Jnanesvar says (J3. VI, 113), " the bliss of affection."
1 See No. LXXXVII.
INTRODUCTION 25
They do not desire even the joys of heaven. Best of all it
seems to them to be to remain on earth, in the fellowship of
the saints, singing the praises of the god of their devotion.
Jnanesvar in one passage describes such a bhakta and his
supreme desire. Tukaram is no less emphatic in his
rejection of a union that means unconsciousness and an
end to the joy of serving and praising his divine Master:
" Advait," he says, "contents me not." 1
But in the case of every one of these poets, as we have
seen, there is a hesitation and ambiguity when they
compare these rival blessednesses. " Knowledge " and
Brahman have a prestige in India that even Tukaram
cannot forget, though he knows by his own experience
that knowledge is, as he says, " a stringless lute." It is,
in fact, as a Christian bhakta had long before declared,
" like sounding brass and a clanging cymbal." And yet,
Tukaram can hear what Kabir calls the " unstruck music,"
and sometimes yields to its subtle fascination. "There,"
says Kabir, who has praised the " bliss of affection " with
as rapturous a delight as any Maratha saint, "the whole
sky is filled with sound, and there that music is made without
fingers and without strings."' In fact, they all want both to
have and have not. The unitive life draws them with a
desire that so many mystical spirits, East and West alike,
have felt. Not in the monism of Sankaracarya, nor in the
dualism that is quite satisfied to remain two, but in a
spiritual experience that transcends and includes both is
peace to be found.
For only where the one is twain,
And where the two are one again
Will truth no more be sought in vain.
Hence the instability, the alternate raptures and des-
pairs of these, as of other, mystic seekers. Love alone —
a love that is not a blind rapture but is knowledge too —
solves the insoluble problem. "In the contact of the
embrace," says Jfianesvar, " the two become one naturally "
(Jfi. V, 133), but they must remain one, not subject to
the vacillations of what is a mere sentiment. Sometimes
1 No. LVI. 2 Tagore's Hundred Poems of Kabir. p. 22.
26 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
they persuade themselves that even in the silence of the
ultimate unity they will be able to hear what one of them,
Kabir, calls " the music of the forgetting of sorrows."
When one reviews the work of these poets it becomes
evident that the scope of the thought and the desires they
express is not wide, nor is there a rich variety in their
music. It is not quite a symphony " on a penny whistle,"
but it has much of the simplicity and monotony, as well
as of the freshness and sincerity, that George Meredith
suggests when he takes that as the symbol of the first love
of youth and the springtime. There are no organ notes
here, no full volume of harmonious sound. The favourite
and most characteristic poetic form made use of by this
group of singers is the abhahg, a brief utterance of usually
from ten to thirty lines, a true cry of the heart. The
poems of Kabir and of Sir Rabindranath Tagore appear to
be of much the same character. They seem to proceed in
most cases from some inward experience and are vivid
with emotion. Whether they are cries of longing, or
utterances of love and devotion, or endeavours to under-
stand and explain life and destiny, they are never merely
decorative in their purpose. They are primarily religious
and only secondarily and accidentally works of art. They
are psalms — meant to be sung, not said, and inseparable,
for a full appreciation, from their music. No doubt
the music helps to make up for an occasional poverty
of thought and bareness of language, but it enables
them also to mount and soar, and carries their message
more surely to its lodgment in the hearer's heart.
They are thus true lyrics, and their melancholy music
makes more touching still the simple appeal in many
of them, of which we might almost say that they "have
no language but a cry." Their most frequently expressed
desire is that they may reach and rest upon the breast of
God. They express this longing by means of a rich
variety of comparisons, of which the most frequent and
most touching is that of a child longing for his mother.
It is, perhaps, significant that this relationship is used by the
Hebrew saints as a symbol, not of the soul's yearning for
God, but of God's yearning over His children. "Can a
INTRODUCTION 21
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, these
may forget, yet will not I forget thee." 1 "As one whom
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." 2
It is in these cries of desire that the Maratha singers
come nearest to the Hebrew psalmists. It may, perhaps,
be maintained with truth that their longing has not the
depth and urgency that characterise Hebrew poetry — a
depth and urgency that are due to a deeper sense of need.
The Hebrew cry is ''out of the depths." These Hindu
saints frequently express a sense of desolation, of weariness
in a world of change and sorrow, of loneliness in separation
from God. They say, even as the Hebrew does, " Like
as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, O God," 3 but they can scarcely be said to
know what he experiences when he goes on to say, "All
thy waves and thy billows have gone over me." For
the same reason, while there are professions of fervent
devotion and affection, while occasional experiences of
inward bliss in the divine fellowship are described, there is
not the deep note of gratitude which is often sounded in
the music of Hebrew psalmists. They knew little of such
an experience as that which is described in the words, " He
brought me up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay;
and he set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth." 4 The
resonant note of thankfulness which throbs in the 103rd
Psalm is outside of their knowledge. They can venture,
on the contrary, to say of these who love God, " God is
their debtor now."° Such an audacity is beyond the reach
of the Hebrew or the Christian penitent, unless his
conscience of sin and of unworthiness is overlaid with
pantheistic speculation as was that of the mediaeval mystic,
Eckhart, who says of God, " He can as little do without
me as I can do without Him."
It is, perhaps, on the whole true to say that the Hindu
psalmists give expression to a more purely natural affection,
1 Isaiah, XLIX, 15. ! Isaiah, LXVI, 12. 3 Ps. XLII, 1. ' Ph.
XL, 2, 3. • No. LXXXVII, p. 81.
28 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
one less suffused with moral meaning, than that which we
find in the Hebrew psalms. They feel in fellowship with
God the instinctive satisfaction, as they so often describe
it, that a babe feels on his mother's breast. Nearness to
God is simply their proper element, as water is to a fish.
If it is the case that the sense of sin is a morbid growth in
man's experience, if there is no ground in the truth of
things to justify the feeling of separation on the part of a
sinful man from a holy God and the demand for a mediator,
then these Indian saints have found a nearer and a directer
way to God than the Hebrew and Christian penitents.
But, on the other hand, no one can question the claim
that the Hebrews, and far more, of course, the Christians,
have from the dark places of their experience described
a more gracious and tender aspect of God and are far
more sure of His love. The god the Hindu aspires
towards is capricious in his affection ; the relation of love
between him and his worshipper is not based on a strong
assurance of his unwavering righteousness. This marks
a profound difference of tone between the religious
experience of the saints of India and of Judea, a difference
which really denotes the distinction that formerly was
made between natural and revealed religion. There is
a strength, a depth, an assurance in the one — in spite of
many tremors — that is not in the other. The beauty,
the pathos, the charm of Hindu piety, as here expressed,
consists in the very earthliness and uncertainty of its eager
hopes. Hebrew aspiration has its roots in darker depths,
but it is met by a revelation — an assurance, that is, that
comes to the desiring heart — of God's moral majesty as
well as of His grace, which gives it quietness and
confidence and strength. This assurance — which rises to
rapture and triumph in the New Testament — is already
present in the psalmists and prophets of the Old Testa-
ment with a richness far beyond anything within the
compass of the music of these Indian singers. At the
same time it would be untrue to say that there are not
a certain number of expressions of content and of satisfied
affection in their songs, or that they have no experience of
peace in the divine fellowship. Examples of such joy and
INTRODUCTION 29
satisfaction are to be found especially among the psalms
of Tukaram. 1
There are other respects, in addition to those which
have been noted, in which the deep division between the
Hindu and Hebrew psalmists reveals itself, hidden as it is
beneath the common need of hearts that are at one in
their longing to find rest in God. As the one conceives
of God as being beyond everything else a moral Being,
while to the other He is still not much more than
a pervading presence in nature, without clearly defined
moral characteristics, their ideals of the holy life are
fundamentally divergent. "Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord ? " says the Hebrew, "Or who shall stand in his
holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn
deceitfully. He that walketh uprightly and worketh
righteousness and speaketh truth in his heart. ... In
whose eyes a vile person is condemned; but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his hurt
and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to
usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that
doeth these things shall never be moved." 2 Such passages
as these describe an attitude of practical philanthropy; they
recognise the supremacy of moral demands and the claims
of duty to one's neighuour. The religion of the Hebrew
psalmists is, no doubt, predominantly personal and indivi-
dual, but the needs of others and responsibility for others
are never far from the worshipper's thoughts. God is for him
the God not merely of the individual worshipper but of at
least the nation. He is also often recognised as the King
over the whole earth, the Judge who will judge the world
with righteousness and the people with equity. These
things belong to a conception of God and of His relations
with men completely different from that of the Indian
devotees. For them the ideal man is one who has reached
a haven of tranquillity.
No wind of good or ill
Shall enter there,
1 See Nos. LXII, LXIII and LXXXII. a Ps. XV.
30 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
But peace, supremely still,
Supremely fair. 1
Equanimity is his supreme quality. He looks with an
equal mind upon " a very courteous Brahman, a dog or an
out-caste man " (Bhagavadgita, v. 18). His compassion is
measured and controlled, and strong feeling never agitates
his soul. In Tukaram's description of the man who is
"God's own counterfeit " 2 we have the Indian ideal at
its very best, one conscious of duty to others but not
urgently or passionately moved to discharge it, more
concerned with the cultivation of a placid temper in
himself than with the wrongs and sorrows of other men.
There is much that is singularly attractive in this picture,
especially to those who suffer from the fever and the fret
of modern Western life. As described by one who was
deeply distressed by the futile agitations of our pursuits, we
Glance and nod and bustle by,
And never once possess our souls
Before we die.
The surge of all anger and passion is to be by the Indian
saint most anxiously avoided.
Thou pervading Brahman art,
How should anger fill thy heart ? 3
" Calm is life's crown," says Tukaram, contradicting by
anticipation Matthew Arnold.
It follows inevitably from this difference in the ideal of
the holy life and in the conception of the character of God
that the Indian saints have no vision of a world judged or
a world redeemed. Their horizon is very narrow and
limited, and their god is their own personal god — not the
nation's or the world's. He is with them most often as a
mother with her child or as a bridegroom with the bride
— never as a King ruling a people in righteousness, or as a
Judge, " the Most High over all the earth." The choice
for the Hindu religion seems to lie between a provincial
or village deity, on the one hand, and a Brahman, on the
other, whose rule, if it can be called rule, may extend more
1 No. LXXVIII. * No. LXXX, p. 79. 3 No. X.
INTRODUCTION 31
widely, but extends over an empty and silent land, a " wide,
grey, lampless, deep, unpeopled world."
One most noticeable difference between the Indian
and the Hebrew psalmists is that the former betray scarcely
a trace of the fierce, Hebrew passion of revenge, of the
spirit of vindictiveness, the cry for vengeance, that deforms
so many of the Biblical psalms. There is nothing in this
Indian sacred poetry to correspond to the prayer, " Pour
out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known
thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon
thy name." Though about the time when these worshippers
of Vithoba sang their songs the Muhammadans were
invading the land, breaking in pieces their gods and
committing, we may be sure, many a crime, there is
no cry to God in these poems for vengeance upon
them. Namdev refers to these things, but with no
anger : he has reached a region of indifference to
such matters. " A god of stone," he says contemptuously,
" and a worshipper who is deceived. . . . Such gods were
broken in pieces by the Turks. They threw them
into the river, as all men know." No doubt they would
say to the Muhammadan marauder, as a " holy man " is
said to have said to a British soldier who stabbed him
in the days of the Mutiny, " And thou, too, art He." All
feelings are diluted ana all differences, even the difference
of right and wrong, are harmonised in a world pervaded
by an impersonal, unmoral spirit, likeness to whom — or
which — is the highest attainment. This doctrine, we
must remember, is behind even the theism of these saints,
emptying their hearts of strong passions, — whether the
desire for vengeance or the desire for justice, whether the
desire to punish evil-doers or to save the perishing. Occa-
sionally Tukaram's heart, — for it certainly is a very tender
heart, — feels and recognises the claim that human need
makes upon him —
Can my heart unmoved be,
When before my eyes I see
Drowning men ? — *
32 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
but this is a rare mood and very seldom expressed in his
poems. His own need and his own concerns absorb him,
and it is not his business to call down vengeance upon evil
doers or to right the world's injustices.
What, then, is the essential difference between the
religious contribution of the Hebrew and of the Hindu
psalmists? The answer is not to be found in the greater
intensity of the desire for God or the subtler intellectual
insight of the one group of saints or of the other. It is
something that reaches deeper in what is beyond all else a
moral universe. The Hebrew saints and prophets realised
earlier and with a profounder grasp than any other people
that it is only the pure in heart that can truly see God,
that it is in " mortal, moral strife " that He is alone
aright revealed. The way of moral progress, of the
purging of the eye of the soul that can see God, is not the
way of the conscience dulled and deadened and of the
heart emptied of feeling. On the contrary, it is by
reinforcing the power in man to love righteousness and
hate iniquity and by drawing his heart towards holiness
that he is brought into any real divine fellowship. The
conscience of the Hebrew psalmist is far from being fully
enlightened: his personal enemies are often reckoned as
God's enemies and his private vendetta given a divine
sanction. But the Jew is more deeply right than any other
people in building everything ultimate in his universe upon
the distinction between right and wrong. "There is
nothing in the world or out of it that is good except a good
will." The Hebrew saints built all their dreams and hopes
of God and of the eternal world of " stuff o' the conscience,"
and for that reason they built what has endured
The saints of bhakti not infrequently indeed make
moral affirmations that prove them to have had visions of
this highway to the presence of God. Especially is this
true of Tukaram. One couplet of his has acquired the
familiarity of a proverb among Marathas, and must have
taught them many a lesson of sincerity and straight-
forwardness.
He whose words and acts agree,
Let his footsteps praised be.
INTRODUCTION 33
Still more striking is another passage in which he
describes the heart to which God makes Himself known:
" Pity, patience, calm — that is God's dwelling-place."
There is, no doubt, more breadth and exaltation, as well
as a profounder sense of human sin and the alienation
that it brings, in the Hebrew prophet's declaration, "Thus
saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose
name is Holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart cf the
contrite one." 1 For he knows, as Tukaram scarcely does,
that " the sacrifices of God are a broken heart." It is the
tears of penitence, through whose veil alone a sinful man
discerns the face of God.
1 Isaiah. LVII, IS.
NOTE
The titles of the selections are in all cases due to the
translator. Selections I-IV, XXVI and XXVIII are
portions extracted from long expository or narrative poems,
the names of which are given in the notes. All the other
selections are short lyrical poems, called abhahgs, bearing
no title but usually referred to by their opening words.
There are various kinds of abhaiigs, some having two lines
to a verse, some four. One of the commonest rhymes and
divides its verse somewhat as is done in No. XCVI.
Another very simple form is almost exactly reproduced in
translation No. XLIV. The six selections mentioned
above, which are not abhahgs, are in the ovl metre, which
has usually a triple rhyme. This has been followed in the
translations.
The last verse of an abhahg opens usually with the
name of the author — "Tuka says," or "Nama says," or
some similar phrase. This has frequently been followed
in the translations, but not always.
For purposes of reference the opening words of each
abhahg are given under the title, the words being
transliterated from the Marathi in accordance with the
scheme of transliteration shown below. At the same time
a reference is given in the case of the abhahgs of Namdev
and of one or two others to Avate's edition of these poets,
and in the case of Tukaram to the Indu Prakash edition
of his works published in Bombay (referred to as LP.).
SYSTEM OF TRANSLITERATION
3J a, 3{T a, | i, 1 1, 3 u, 3; u, 3? r, q e, tr ai, aft o, aft au,
$ k, ^ kh, it g, g gh, ^- n ; ^ c, 3 ch, 3f j, g jh, sr n ; Z t,
Z th, % d, g dh, ny n ; rT t, sr th, ^ d, vj dh, ?r n ; q p, % ph,
if b, *r bh, tr m ; q y, 1 r, 55 1, 3 v, $y s, q s, fl s, ^ h, al;
visarga h, nasalised J^ as in ^Zftr rh.
JNANESVAR 1
(13th Century)
I. THE GREAT HEARTED
(Jiianeivari IX, ISSff.)
Who day and night are from all passion free, —
Within their holy hearts I love to be,
Dwelling in sanctity.
Hearts of a fervent faith to them belong,
Where Dharma 2 reigns ; in them that power is strong
That knows or right or wrong.
They bathe in Wisdom ; then their hunger stay
With Perfectness ; lo, all in green array,
The leaves of Peace are they.
Buds of Attainment these ; columns they are
In Valour's hall : of joy fetched from afar
Each a full water-jar.
So dear the path of bhakti, they despise
The great Release; 3 e'en in their sport there lies
The Wisdom of the wise.
With pearls of Peace their limbs they beautify ;
Within their minds as in a scabbard I,
The All-indweller, 4 lie.
Therefore their love waxes unceasingly, —
These greatsouled ones ; not the least rift can be
Between their hearts and me.
1 For some account of this poet and the poem from which selections
I-IV are taken, see pp. 13ff.
2 Dharma, the whole bodyof moral and religious law by which the
social structure, connoted by the term caste, is maintained in Hinduism.
3 The Great Release, mukti, or moksa, that is, absorption in the
Supreme Spirit, which brings deliverance from rebirth. The saint who
follows bhakti prefers to live on earth, in the fellowship of the saints,
singing the praises of his God. Cf. Nos. LXXXVII, XCII.
* The All-indweller. that is, Krisna, who is the speaker.
PSU.MS OF MARATHA SAINTS
II. THE RAPTURE OF DEVOTION
(Jnancsvari IX, 19Tfi.)
Dancing they sing my praises i 1 surely not
For them rites of atonement, — nay, I wot,
Sin's very name's forgot.
The mind and heart ask, " What shall we restrain ? "
The sacred stream cries, " All my cleansing's vain,
Since here there is no stain."
Thus by the praises of my name they slay
The world's distress ; hark, how it echoes gay
With happy holiday.
The same to them the monarch or his thrall,
The high or low, — themselves alike to all
A place of festival.
To heaven they seldom go," but earth they fill
Brim full of heaven, chanting my name until
The world is cleansed from ill.
For not in heaven I dwell ; nor in the sky
In the sun's orb ; than yogi's 3 visions high
Far higher still am I.
Not in such places, Pandav, 4 I abide,
But those who sing my praises far and wide,
Within their hearts I hide.
How glad of heart are they beholding me.
Forgot are time and place ; where'er they be,
There sing they joyfully.
And they, the while my name they celebrate
In endless song, with limpid thought debate
Upon the soul's estate.
1 My praises. Krijna is the speaker.
' To lieavcti they seldom go. Compare Note 3 on p. 35.
* yogi, one who seeks absorption in the Supreme Spirit by mental
exercises and concentration.
* Pandav, that is, Arjuna, to whom Kxisna is speaking.
JNANESVAR 37
III. AEQUANIMITAS
(Jn&neSvariXII, V/7ff.)
His heart, O Arjuna, no bias knows :
On all an equal aspect he bestows,
Friends let them be or foes.
A lamp is he, shining with steadfast light,
Not shining to the stranger dark as night,
While to the household bright.
As trees whose shadows on their planter fall
Or on who hews them down, — so he to all
Alike impartial.
Sweet to its tender is the cane ; nor less
To him who crushed it in the cruel press, —
Sweet with no bitterness ;
So he who deems a friend or foe the same,
Alike unmoved though the world should blame,
Or though it grant him fame.
Lo, as the unperturbed skies enfold
The changing seasons, does this one behold
Or scorching heat or cold.
Whether a north wind or a south wind blow
It matters not to Meru, 1 — even so
To him is joy or woe.
Ah, sweetly, sweetly does the moonlight fall
Alike upon the monarch and the thrall, —
So he the same to all.
IV. TRUTH.
(JUneivariXVI, 115ff.)
How tender is the bud, yet mark aright
How sharp it thrusts ; and how the moon is bright
Though gently falls its light.
1 Meru, the centra] mountain of the universe, round which the
planets revolve.
38 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Or of what medicine can any tell
But bitter is, that makes the sick man well ?
(Dost mark my parallel?)
Soft as the water 'tis, that gives no pain
E'en to the eyeball, but that sweeps amain
And rends the earth in twain.
To pierce our doubts it's sharper than a spear, —
And yet than sweetness self how much more dear
To the attentive ear.
The ear receives it with a deep delight,
And on it travels till by truth's own might
It climbs to Brahma's height. 1
Ah, who by love of truth was e'er deceived ?
Or who, when truth he rightly has received,
Has e'er by her been grieved ?
V. " CRY HARI " 2
(Devaciye dvari ubha ksanabhari)
Stand at the door of God
One moment nigh, —
Thou hast the fourfold bliss
Obtained thereby.
Cry " Hari," cry aloud, —
Let the name ring ;
So thou shalt merit gain
Past reckoning.
Dwell in the world, but still
Cry out amain, —
Witness the ancient saints, —
Thou shalt attain.
1 Brahma's height, the final goal of Hinduism is the realisation of
identity with Brahma.
2 Hari, one of the names of Visnuor Krisna, popularly interpreted
to mean " the remover of sin,"
JNANESVAR 39
Yea (hark to Jnanadev 1 )
Vyasa 2 has told
How to the Pandavs' house
God came of old.
VI. THE NAME
(Santace sangatl manomargagati)
To the dwelling of the saints
Take thy way ;
There the Lord himself shall not
Say thee nay.
Cry " Ramkrisna", — 'tis the path
To life's goal.
Worship Rama, — he who is
Siva's soul.
Him whose name is unity,
Whoso find,
Fetters of duality
Cannot bind.
All the lustre and the glow
Yogis 3 gain
By thlj name so honey-sweet
We attain.
On Pralhada's 4 childish lips
Dwelt the name,
While to Uddav bringing gifts
Krisna came.
Easy 'tis to utter it
(Is't not true ?)
Yet who use it anywhere
Ah, how few.
1 Jnanadev, a variant of the author's name, Jnanesvar.
2 Vyasa, the traditional author of the great epic, the Mahabharata,
the theme of which is the fortunes of five brothers, the Pandavas.
3 Yogis, see above, p. 36.
4 Pralhada and Uddhav, famous Vais-nava devotees of ancient
legend.
40 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
VII. "THERE NEEDS NOT AN APPOINTED HOUR'
(Kalavela nama uccaritd tiahi)
There needs not a propitious hour
This name to cry.
Lo, both who speaks it and who hears
Are saved thereby.
This holy name bears quite away
All man's offence, —
Hari, the saviour e'en of men
Of little sense.
Who speak this name, the soul of all,
O happy they !
Plain for their fathers' feet they make
The heavenward way.
VIII. THE STOREHOUSE OF BLISS
(Riipa paltata locanl)
When thy visage I descry,
O how glad, how glad am I !
Vitthal 2 'tis, the good the fair, —
Madhav, good beyond compare.
Many blessings gather here, —
How can Vitthal but be dear?
Every joy is found in thee,
Father, Lord of Rukmini.
1 This is the first abhang sung in every bhajan. See p. 12.
2 Vitthal, one of the names of Vithoba, the form of Kri?na, wor-
shipped at Pandharpur. Madhav is another name of Krisna, whose
wife is Rukmini.
MUKTABAl
(13th Century)
IX. THE LAND OF TOPSY-TURVY'
(Mungi udali akaii)
An ant has leapt up to the sky
And swallowed up the sun on high !
A marvel this that I declare, —
That barren wife a son should bear.
A scorpion plumbs the nether Pit,
And Visnu's snake bows down to it.
A fly an eagle brings to birth.
Mukta, beholding, laughs with mirth.
X. A REMONSTRANCE'
(Majavari daya kara)
Graciously thy heart incline: —
Open to me, brother mine !
He's a saint who knoweth how
To the world's abuse to bow.
Great of soul indeed is he, —
Wholly purged of vanity.
Surely he whose soul is great
Is to all compassionate.
Thou pervading Brahman art.
How should anger fill thy heart ?
Such a poised soul be thine.
Open to me, brother mine !
1 This Land of Topsy-turvy is the land of the enlightened soul,
where all is One.
2 This Abhang is said to have been addressed by Muktibai to her
brother Jfianvesvar on an occasion when the door of his hut was closed
against her and she supposed him to be angry.
NAMDEV
(14th Century)
XI. "GONE ARE THE SAINTS"
(Avate, 93S. Gele digambara 'isvaravibhiiti)
Gone are the saints, passed to the heavenly sphere:
Only their fame tarries behind them here.
Our ears have heard of their unworldly ways, —
But there are no saints like them nowadays.
Men talk of knowledge, — say, " It's this and this,'
But still Nivritti's 1 way to truth they miss.
They'll show us Parabrahm, 2 they say ; but, ah,
There's no one has the skill of Jiianoba.
They talk of bliss of earth and bliss divine,
But only Sopandev can say, " 'Tis mine."
Ah, God, says Namdev, say we what we will,
Thy secret, Muktabai, escapes us still.
XII. THE HEART'S DESIRE
(Kiti, devd, tuhma yen kakulati)
O God, my cry comes up to thee,
How sad a cry is it !
What is this tragic destiny
That fate for me has writ ?
1 On Nivritti, Sopandev and Muktabai, see p. 14.
' Parabrahm, the supreme Brahman.
NAMDEV 43
Wherefore, O Hrisikes, 1 dost thou
So lightly pass me by ?
To whom, to whom but to thee now
Can I lift up my cry ?
As chiming anklets sweetly ring
So rings thy name abroad ;
To human spirits hungering
Thou givest peace with God.
Thou on thy shoulders carrying
All the world's load of care, —
To thee 'tis such a little thing
My trouble too to bear !
O Mother Pandurang, 2 I cry,
Drive thou me not away.
At Hari's feet I, Nama, lie ;
He will not say me nay.
XIII. "O HASTE AND COME"
(Avate, 1482. Kaya majha ata pahatosi anta)
Dost thou behold me perishing ?
haste and come, my God and king.
1 die unless thou succour bring,
O haste and come, my God and king.
To help me is a trifling thing ;
Yet thou must haste, my God and king.
O come (how Nama's clamours ring)
O haste and come, my God and king.
1 Hrisikes, one of the names of Krisna.
2 Panduranga is one of the most popular names of Vithoba of Pan-
dharpur, and so is equivalent to Kri?na or Hari. Here, as in many
of the poem9 that follow, the god is addressed as a mother.
44 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAIXTS
XIV. A VOW
(Avate, 333. Diha javo athava rdho)
Whether I live or perish, yet
On Pandurang 1 my faith is set.
Thy feet, Lord, I will ne'er forsake, —
To thee this solemn vow I make.
Thy holy name my lips shall tell ;
Within my heart thy love shall dwell.
This, Kesav, 1 is thy Nama's vow.
O aid me to fulfil it, thou !
XV. ONE THING
(Avate, 501. Bed deva pax magata)
One thing I of my Lord entreat,
That I may ever serve his feet.
That I in Pandhari 2 abide,
Always his holy saints beside.
Or high or low my birth may be ;
Still, Hari, I would worship thee !
Lord of Kamala, 3 Kama prays,
O grant me this through all my days.
XVI. A BITTER CRY
(A-.ate, 351. Majhi kona gati safiga)
When will the end of these things be ?
Ah, tell me, Lord of Pandhari. 4
When wilt thou save unhappy me ?
O tell me, tell me true, for I
Cry to thee with a bitter cry.
1 Pandurang and Keiav, names of Krisna or Vithoba.
* Pandhari, Pandharpur, see p. 11.
' Lord of Kamala, Visnu or Krijna, Kamala being a Dame of
Lalcsml, his wife.
* Lord of Pandhari, Vithoba. See p. 11.
XAMDEV 45
Why speakest thou not ? Ah, Vitthal, why
Thus silent ? Whither shall I fly ?
Who else will bear my sore distress ?
Smite me not in my helplessness.
As to the child is wholly sweet
His mother, — so to me thy feet.
Thou gracious Lord of Ralchumai, 1
Friend of the poor, hear Nama's cry.
XVII. SEEKING
(Avate, 391. Tatva pusavaya gelo zedajnasi)
From Vedic students first the truth I sought,
And found them full of " Thou shalt," "Thou shalt not."
Never shall they possess tranquillity,
For mighty in them is the power of " me." 2
From Scripture scholars sought I once again
The form divine, but found them rent in twain.
Not one agrees with what the others say,
But pride and error lead them all astray.
Next in Purans 3 I sought that form so fair,
But still, alas, no place of rest was there.
The preachers preach of Brahm but set their mind
On lust, and so true peace they never find.
Ask of the Haridas 4 the way devout ;
You'll find in him no faith at all but doubt.
He tells in words the Name's high excellence,
While all the time engrossed with things of sense.
1 Rakhumai, Rukmini, the wife of K.ri$na.
' The power of " me," of egoism, which holds one in bondage by
preventing identification with the Supreme Spirit. How far here and
elsewhere the idea has an ethical implication and approximates to
' selfishness ' it is not easy to judge. Cf. pp. 47, 78, 80, etc.
' Purans, collections of legendary stories of the gods, which are
expounded in the temples by Puriniks or preachers.
' Haridas, a devotee of Krijna. Praise of the Name of Krisna is
one of the ways of devotion. See Nos. II and V above.
46 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Weary with seeking, here at last am I.
Low at thy feet, O Pandurang I lie.
My worldly life is full of fears, but thou
('Tis Nama cries), O save me, save me now.
XVIII. "MY MOTHER THOU"
(Avate, 270. Tu majhi mauli)
My Mother thou; thy sucking babe am I :
Feed me with love, my Pandurang, 1 I cry.
I am the calf with thee the mother cow ;
Thy milk, my Pandurang, withold not now.
I am thy fawn, the mother doe thou art ;
Rend the world's snare, my Pandurang, apart.
Thou mother bird and I among thy brood ;
O fly, my Pandurang, and bring me food.
Ah, heart's beloved, hear thy Nama say,
On every side thou hedgest up my way.
XIX. THE MEN OF FAITH 3
(Avate, 1449. Akalpa dyusya)
Long may that happy household live
Who service to my Hari give.
May no temptation bring distress
But all their lives be blessedness ;
No wind of self e'er cause them scathe,
My loved ones, Visnu's men of faith.
Blessings be theirs whose lips have sung
The name of Nama's Pandurang.
1 The name of Pandurang throughout this abhang is used in
feminine form. Cf. Nos. XII and XLIII.
* This is sung as the closing song in every bhajan. See p. 12.
NAMDEV 47
XX. THE REIGN OF PEACE
(Avate, 583. Avaghd sariisdra sukhaca karlna)
Now all my days with joy I'll fill
Full to the brim,
With all my heart to Vitthal cling
And only him.
He will sweep utterly away
All dole and care ;
And all in sunder shall I rend
Illusion's snare.
O altogether dear is he
And he alone,
For all my burden he will take
To be his own.
Lo, all the sorrow of the world
Will straightway cease,
And all unending now shall be
The reign of peace.
For all the bondage he will break
Of worldly care,
And all in sunder will he rend
Illusion'r snare.
From all my foolish fancies now
Let me be free.
In Vitthal, Vitthal only is
Tranquillity.
XXI. "WHO VASUDEV IN ALL CAN SEE"
(Avate, 1416. Sarvdbhuti pake eka Vdsudeva)
Who Vasudev 1 in all can see,
Cleansed from the thought of " I,"
Know that a saint indeed is he ;
The rest in bondage lie.
1 Vasudev, Visnu-Krisna. For the next line see Note on p. 45,
and cf. Nos. XVII, LXXVlil, LXXXII.
48 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Wealth to his eyes is only dust :
Jewels as stones he sees ;
Gone from his heart is rage and lust ;
Pardon dwells there, and peace.
He will not for an instant rest
(Hear what I, Nama, say),
But Govind's 1 name — of all the best —
He utters night and day.
XXII. ILLUMINATION
(Avate, 586. Nidristace seje sarpa)
One fast asleep can never know
That to his chamber crawling in
There comes the snake, — and heedless so
Am I to lure of sense or sin,
Since inward vision to bestow,
My Kesav has so gracious been.
Alike are gold and dross to me ;
Jewel and common stone, the same.
Now ne'er my soul can harmed be,
Walk I in heaven or in the flame.
Since one with final bliss are we,
Then what is either praise or blame?
1 Govind, Krisna.
JANABAI 1
(14th Century)
XXIII. PUNDLIK
(Avate, 172. Bhakta niajl agragani)
To holy Pundlik 2 give
The highest place.
Sages and saints he saved, —
Saved by his grace.
Thou, standing on the brick,*
That grace give me,
Who, Pundlik, clasp thy feet,
So lowlily.
XXIV. GRINDING
{Avate, 188. Vairagya abhimane)
Dispassion's mill, with earnest mind,
Lo, here grind I, —
While for a handle faith I find
To turn it by.
A handful of past deeds I deem
Grist for the mill,
And grind in the one Soul supreme
My good or ill.
1 On Janabal, see p. 16f.
* Pundlik is a saint who is specially associated with the origin of
the worship of Vithoba at Pandharpur.
■ He who stands on the brick is Vithoba, who, according to the
legend, stood patiently waiting while Pundlik attended to his parents
needs.
50 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
All outward form to dust is ground,
All eyes can see,
For 'tis the Lord himself, I've found,
Who grinds for me.
Strange that this god should come and sit.
His servant nigh ;
For I've had nought to do with it,
Says Janabai.
XXV. THE BESETTING GOD
(Avate, 198. Deva khate deva plte)
Of God my meat and drink I make,
God is the bed on which I lie.
God is whate'er I give or take ;
God's constant fellowship have I
For God is here and God is there, —
No place that empty is of him.
Yea, lady Vitha, 1 I declare,
I fill the world up to the brim. 2
1 Lady Vitha, Vithoba in a feminine form. Compare Pandurarig
in Nos. XII and XVIII.
2 For the last line see p. 17.
EKANATH
(1548-99)
XXVI. GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN*
(Bhdgavat. XI, 145Sg)
How sweet the melted ghee when it congeals.
So, when the Hidden One his form reveals,
How glad the seeker feels.
Dark, dark the far Unknown and closed the way
To thought and speech ; silent the scriptures ; yea,
No word the Vedas say.
Not thus the Manifest. How fair! How near!
Gone is our thirst if only he appear, —
He, to the heart so dear.
The ever perfect, Bliss eternally,
Being and thou t ht, — lo, Govind now is he,
Spring of all sport and glee.
Strength, courage, fame, the lofty spirit, — lo,
All these we see my lower God bestow,
This, Uddhav, 2 thou must know.
My eyes, if but a glimpse of God I get,
Are healed ; escaped am I from out life's net ;
Cancelled my sensual debt.
In the lamp's light all hidden things appear;
So when I think upon my God so dear
The far-off God is here.
1 This selection is taken from Ekanath's commentary on the 11th
chapter of the Bhdgavata Purdna. For this poet see Introduction, p. 23.
2 Uddhav, the friend of Krisna to whom the 11th chapter of the
Bhdgavata Purana is addressed by Krisna.
52 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
XXVII. THE NINEFOLD PATH OF BHAKTI
(Navavidha bhakti nava dcarati)
Now hearken while we sing their praise
Who follow bhakti's ninefold ways.
But name them with the rising sun, —
Thy sins are burned up everyone.
The hearing ear saved Bhupati ;
In seven days was he set free.
The mighty Bhagavat to hear
He made himself one listening ear.
Sri Suka tried the klrtan, — so
He, too, was saved, as all men know.
The name was chanted by Pralhad
Till truth shone forth and made him glad.
Hari himself came down to men
And slew the demon, Daitya, then.
Rama was dear unto the Lord,
For she the feet divine adored.
Her soft hands tend with ceaseless care
Those lotus feet, so fine, so fair.
When he the Cowherd's footprints sees
Akrura falls upon his knees,
And prostrate thus he sings his praise,
Lost in a rapture of amaze.
Sita exalted Maruti,
Serving his master lowlily.
The humble service of a slave
To Sita's lord he gladly gave.
Next Arjun, of the Lord's own kin,
Whom to his heart he gathered in
And taught the Gita's way of peace,
To find from birth and death release.
Krisna, — himself when Bali gave, —
Before his door served as a slave ;
Three paces all the land he sought,
Contented with a beggar's lot.
EKANATH 53
Now Bhakti's ninefold 1 path behold,
By which nine saints attained of old.
Say I,- — to render up the soul,
Yea that is bhakti's highest goal.
XXVIII. THE SCORNER 2
(Bhavartha Ramayana, Chap. I)
Who praises and who scorns me too,
Both are my mother. Ay, I view
My scorners as my mother true.
For such are kind to me. They say
Hard words that wash my soil away,
As does a mother's bathing. They
Are friends indeed and strength supply
To me. Were I to blame them, why,
The guilty one would then be I.
O sweet is scorning, setting free
From bondage of duality.
A gracious benefactor he.
Before the SL3rner bow we low.
Blest be his mother; for I know
Who suffer scorn to Freedom go.
1 The nine ways of bhakti, enumerated (with one omission) above,
are as follows :
(1) Sravana, or hearing, illustrated by Bhupati.
(2) The Kirtan, or singing of sacred songs, illustrated by Sri
Suka.
(3) Noma Smarana, repetition of the divine name, illustrated
by Pralhad.
(4) Padasevana, worshipping the feet, illustrated by Rama.
(5) Arcana, worship of an image, is omitted from Ekanath's
enumeration.
(6) Vandana, reverential adoration, illustrated by Akrura.
(7) Dasya, the service of a slave, illustrated by Miruti.
(8) Sakhya, friendship, illustrated by Arjuna.
(9) Atmanivedana, self surrender, illustrated by Bali.
2 This is from another work of Ekanath, his Bhavartha Ramayana.
54 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
XXIX. MEN'S REVILING
(Nindaka kamdca kamaca)
Vile, vile of conduct me they call,
Me, servant of the soul of all.
Vile is my Gafiga 1 next they say,
Which sweeps my sins all, all away.
Vile is my friend who all for nought
Cleanses my robe of every spot.
Yea, vile my guru, 2 he who hath
Made great Janardan's Ekanath.
XXX. "GOD DWELLS IN ALL"
(Deva sarvathayi vase)
God dwells in all, and yet we find,
To him the faithless man is blind.
Water or stones or what you will, —
What is it that he does not fill ?
Lo, God is present everywhere,
Yet faithless eyes see nothing there.
If Ekanath unfaithful be,
Then God he also shall not see.
XXXI. THE SPIRITUAL PANDHARI.
The body's Pandhari and, dwelling there,
Vitthal, the soul, that being past compare;
While Bhima's 3 waters flow with faith and love,
And over all shines Pandurang" the fair.
' Ganga, the sacred river Ganges.
2 Guru, spiritual preceptor, who in Ekanath's case was Janardan
3 Bhima, the river upon which Pandhari or Pandharpur stands.
* Pandurang, see Note on p. 43 above.
EKANATH 55
And mercy, patience, peace are Bhima's sand,
Where, rank on rank, the Vaisnav pilgrims stand.
Ah, listen how the music sweetly sounds, —
Joy, worship, truth, and hearts that understand.
My senses form a single company
Of festal worshippers ; and lo, I see, —
I, Ekanath, the pilgrim, — everywhere,
In crowds, in solitude, my Pandhari.
XXXII. "SAINTS GREAT OF HEART"
(Udar tuhml santa)
Saints great of heart and kind are ye,
Fathers and mothers unto me.
So great the blessings you bestow,
How can I praise you, I so low ?
For you have saved us, you have showed
To us, dull men, the proper road.
My debt, I, Sena barber, 1 say,
Ah, never, never can I pay.
1 Sena, a barber by caste, was one of Ramananda's disciples.
Some Marathi abhangs are attributed to him.
TUKARAM 1
(1608-49)
XXXIII. THE MOTHER'S HOUSE 3
(I. P. 266. Kanya sasiirydsi jaye)
As the bride looks back to her mother's house,
And goes, but with dragging feet ;
So my soul looks up unto thee and longs,
That thou and I may meet.
As a child cries out and is sore distressed,
When its mother it cannot see,
As a fish that is taken from out the wave,
So 'tis, says Tuka, with me.
XXXIV. THE SUPPLIANT
(I. P. 5 SO. Vcita te hay a)
How can I know the right, —
So helpless I —
Since thou thy face hast hid from me,
O thou most high ! 3
I call and call again
At thy high gate.
None hears me ; empty is the house
And desolate.
1 For some account of Tukaram see pp. 18ff.
2 Here Tukaram compares himself in this samsara, this condition
of " wandering " and exile, which is life in its repeated forms, to the
child-bride going to live with her husband and looking back with
longing to her mother's house. The mother's house, maherghar, round
which in India so many happy associations cluster, is for the soul the
breast of God. The exiled spirit looks back " to God, who is his
home."
3 Another and perhaps better authenticated interpretation would be :
How can I know the right, —
I, helpless one !
Of pride of knowledge, lo, O God,
I now have none !
TUKARAM 57
If but before thy door
A guest appear,
Thou'lt speak to him some fitting word,
Some word of cheer.
Such courtesy, O Lord,
Becometh thee,
And we, — ah, we're not lost to sense
So utterly.
XXXV. A BEGGAR FOR LOVE
(I. P. 1502. Thakalose dvarl )
A beggar at thy door,
Pleading I stand ;
Give me an alms, O God,
Love from thy loving hand.
Spare me the barren task,
To come, and come for nought.
A gift poor Tuka craves,
Unmerited, unbought.
XXXVI. "GOD WHO IS OUR HOME"
(I. P. '820. Matevina bala)
To the child how dull the Fair
If his mother be not there !
So my heart apart from thee,
O thou Lord of Pandhari I 1
Chatak 2 turns from stream and lake,
Only rain his thirst can slake.
How the lotus all the night
Dreameth, dreameth of the light !
Lord of Pandhari, that is, Vithoba, whose central shrine is a
Pandharpur.
' Chatak, a species of cuckoo, often called the brain fever bird. It
is popularly believed to be able to drink only rain water, and hence its
agonised cry for rain,
58 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
As the stream to fishes thou,
As is to the calf the cow.
To a faithful wife how dear
Tidings of her Lord to hear !
How a miser's heart is set
On the wealth he hopes to get !
Such, says Tuka, such am I !
But for thee I'd surely die.
XXXVII. THE STRIFE OF SENSE
(7.P S27. Avagka veiicalo)
Wearied by strife of sense,
By call and counter-call,
To thee I hie me thence,
And tell thee all.
Yea, Lord, thou knowest this ;
I've brought my life to thee.
Cast down my burden is
And I am free !
Now all my being yearns,
Yearns with a strong desire,
My love within me burns,
A wasting fire.
If thou canst help indeed —
(Hear what I, Tuka, say) —
Narayan, 1 help with speed,
Make no delay !
XXXVIII. WAITING
(I. P. 469. Vata pake bake)
With head on hand before my door,
I sit and wait in vain.
Along the road to Pandhari
My heart and eyes I strain.
1 N&rayan, that is, Vi$nu. The name probably retains a general
suggestion as describing the Supreme Being, though it was appro-
priated by the Vai?navas as a name of Vijnu.
TUKARAM 59
When shall I look upon my Lord ?
When shall I see him come ?
Of all the passing days and hours
I count the heavy sum.
With watching long my eyelids throb,
My limbs with sore distress,
But my impatient heart forgets
My body's weariness.
Sleep is no longer sweet to me ;
I care not for my bed ;
Forgotten are my house and home,
All thirst and hunger fled.
Says Tuka, Blest shall be the day, —
Ah, soon may it betide ! —
When one shall come from Pandhari 1
To summon back the bride.
XXXIX. DESOLATION
(I. P. 1S36. Doliyd pajhar kantha majhi date)
Sobs choke my throat ; my eyes
Are wet wkh tears, —
Still waiting for my Pandurang,
Till he appears.
So long cast off by thee,
My heart despairs.
Ah, whither hast thou gone, absorbed
In other cares ?
So many tasks and cares
Are thine, while I — ■
I am forgotten thus, alas,
And left to die.
1 Tukarum lived in the village of Dehu, while Vithoba, whom he
worshipped, had his temple at Pandharpur. In this abhang, as in
No. XXXIII, he is the child-bride, longing to return to his mother's
house.
60 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Pilgrims and saints go past
To Pandhari,
And many messages they bear
From me to thee.
Who else but thee would run
To help my need ?
O come to me, my Pandurang,
O come with speed.
How long still must I wait,
To see thy face ?
Thou hast forgot thy trembling child,
Thou full of grace.
Once more remember me,
I, Tuka, pray.
O come to fetch thy darling home,
Make no delay.
XL. "THEE, LORD OF PITY, I BESEECH'
(I. P. 2824. Aga karunakara.)
Thee, Lord of Pity, I beseech,
Come speedily and set me free.
Yea, when he hears my piteous speech,
All eager should Narayan 1 be.
Lo, in the empty world apart
I hearken, waiting thy footfall :
Vitthal, 2 thou father, mother art,
Thou must not loiter at my call.
Thou, thou alone art left to me
All else when weighed is vanity.
Now, Tuka pleads, thy gift of grace complete
Now let mine eyes behold thy equal feet.
Narayan, see Note on p. 58 above.
Vitthal^ one of the names of Vithoba or Pandurang or Krisna.
TUKARAM 61
XLI. FROM THE DEPTHS
(7.P. 365S. Aike Pdnduranga vacana)
O Pandurang, this once
Hark to my cry,
For I thy servant am,
Thine only I.
Save me by whatso means
Thou best may'st deem ;
No longer now I make
Or plan or scheme.
How carefully my plans
And schemes I wrought !
My falsehood and my pride
Bring all to nought.
One dull of wit am I,
Of low degree,
By selfishness possessed
And vanity.
An instant and on me
Ruin may fall.
Come t, my help, O God,
Come to my call.
XLII. FORSAKE ME NOT !
{I. P. 4381 . Kurangi pddasa cukalese )
If far from home the poor faun roam,
With grief its heart will break.
Thus lonely I with thee not nigh
O do not me forsake !
Thy heart within, all, all my sin
Ah, hide ; make no delay.
Eternal thou — look on me now
In love, I, Tuka, pray.
62 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
XL1II. MOTHER VITHOBA
(I. P. 1540. Tuja mhanatila kripeca sagara)
Ah, Pandurafig, if, as men say,
A sea of love thou art,
Then wherefore dost thou so delay?
take me to thy heart !
I cry for thee as for the hind
The faun makes sore lament.
Nowhere its mother it can find,
With thirst and hunger spent.
With milk of love, ah, suckle me
At thy abounding breast,
O Mother, haste. — In thee, in thee
My sad heart findeth rest.
XLIV. ME MISERABLE
(I. P. SOb. Alpa majhi mat*)
Since little wit have I,
hear my mournful cry.
Grant now, O grant to me
That I thy feet may see.
1 have no steadfastness,
Narayan, 2 I confess.
Have mercy, Tuka prays,
On my unhappy case.
XLV. WITHIN MY HEART
(l.P. S6S. Nakalata kaya)
1 know no way by which
My faith thy feet can reach
Nor e'er depart.
1 In this abhahg the conception of Vithoba or Pandurafig as a
mother, which we have already met with (see Note on p. 43 above), is
elaborated.
* Narayan, see Note on p. 58 above.
TUKARAM 63
How, how can I attain
That thou, O Lord, shalt reign
Within my heart ?
Lord, I beseech thee, hear
And grant to faith sincere,
My heart within,
Thy gracious face to see,
Driving afar from me
Deceit and sin.
O come, I, Tulca, pray,
And ever with me stay,
Mine, mine to be.
Thy mighty hand outstretch
And save a fallen wretch,
Yea, even me.
XLVI. THE RESTLESS HEART
(I. P. 1031. Jivanavacuni talamali mdsa)
As on the bank the poor fish lies
And gasps and writhes in pain,
Or as a man with anxious eyes
Seeks hidden gold in vain, —
So is my heart distressed and cries
To come to thee again.
Thou knowest, Lord, the agony
Of the lost infant's wail,
Yearning his mother's face to see.
(How oft I tell this tale !)
O at thy feet the mystery
Of the dark world unveil !
The fire of this harassing thought
Upon my bosom preys.
Why is it I am thus forgot ?
(O, who can know thy ways?)
Nay, Lord, thou seest my hapless lot ;
Have mercy, Tuka. says.
64 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
XLVII. "I LONG TO SEE THY FACE"
(I. P. 2672. Tuja pahdve he dharito vasana)
I long to see thy face,
But ah, in me hath holiness no place.
By thy strength succour me,
So only, only I thy feet may see !
Though Sadhu's 1 robes I've worn,
Within I'm all unshaven and unshorn.
Lost, lost, O God, am I,
Unless thou help me, Tuka, — me who cry !
XLVIII. " KEEP ME FROM VANITY"
(I. P. 3443. Nako maja tatka, nako abhimana)
Keep me from vanity
Keep me from pride,
For sure I perish if
I quit thy side.
From this deceiving world
How hard to flee !
Ah, thou, Vailcuntha's 2 Lord,
Deliver me !
If once thy gracious face
I look upon,
The world's enticement then
Is past and gone.
XLIX. ASPIRATION
(I. P. 1996. Devd ata aisa kari upakara)
One favour grant, O God, — that now by me
My flesh may be forgot ;
So shall I have (for I at last have learned)
Bliss for my lot.
1 Sddhu, an ascetic who, as such, wears a yellow robe and shaves
his head.
2 Vaikuntha, the heaven of Visnu, or Krisna or Vithoba.
TUKARAM 65
Give to my heart and all its moods a place
Close by thy side ;
Break, break the bond that binds me to desire,
To passion, shame and pride.
Thy name to utter and the saints to know, —
I beg but this of thee.
Here is no feigning, Lord ; my service take
Of faith and purity !
L. THE ONLY REFUGE
(I.P. 4004. Avaghyd pdtaksiici mi eka rdii)
I am a mass of sin ;
Thou art all purity ;
Yet thou must take me as I am
And bear my load for me.
Me Death has all consumed ;
In thee all power abides.
All else forsaking, at thy feet
Thy servant Tuka hides.
LI. DESOLATE
(I.P. 3695. Konacecintana kari aiii kile)
When thought of all but thee
Has from me gone,
Still by thy strength upheld
I struggle on.
Come to me, Vitthal, 1 come !
For thee I wait.
O, wherefore hast thou me
Left desolate.
Many oppress me sore
With cruel might ;
My very enemies
Are day and night.
1 Vitthal, see Note on p. 40 above.
66 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Ah come and take thy place
At my heart's core ;
Then shall the net of ill
Snare me no more.
LII. "O SAVE ME, SAVE ME!"
(I.P.3837. Trahe, trahe, trahe, sodavi ananta)
O save me, save me, Mightiest,
Save me and set me free.
O let the love that fills my breast
Cling to thee lovingly.
Grant me to taste how sweet thou art ;
Grant me but this, I pray,
And never shall my love depart
Or turn from thee away.
Then I thy name shall magnify
And tell thy praise abroad,
For very love and gladness I
Shall dance before my God.
Grant to me, Vitthal, 1 that I rest
Thy blessed feet beside ;
Ah, give me this, the dearest, best,
And I am satisfied.
LIII. NEAR YET FAR
(I.P. 4419. Tujavina tilabhari)
There is no place, small as a sesamum,
But thou, they say, art there.
That deep in all this universe thou dwell'st
Sages and saints declare.
So, I, of old thy child, in faith of this
Come seeking help from thee.
Thou overflow'st the world, and yet, and yet,
Thy face I cannot see.
1 Vitthal, see Note on p. 40 above.
TUKARAM 67
" Why should I meet this abject — I to whom
There is nor bound nor end ? "
Is it with such a thought thou comest not,
My father and my friend ?
Ah, what shall Tuka do that he thy feet
May touch and tend ?
LIV. BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS, GOD
(I. P. 4420. Kama krodha ada)
Here tower the hills of passion and of lust, —
Far off the Infinite !
No path I find and all impassable
Fronts me the hostile height.
Ah, God is lost, my friend. Narayan 1 now
How can I e'er attain ?
Thus it appears that all my life, so dear,
I've spent, alas, in vain.
LV. "I CANNOT UNDERSTAND: I LOVE"
(I. P. 4361. Na kale mahima)
Thy greatness none can comprehend ■
All dumb the Vedas are.
Forspent the powers of mortal mind ;
They cannot climb so far.
How can I compass him whose light
Illumes both sun and star?
The serpent of a thousand tongues 2
Cannot tell all thy praise ;
Then how, poor I ? Thy children we,
Mother of loving ways !
Within the shadow of thy grace,
Ah, hide me, Tuka says.
1 Narayan, see Note on p. 58 above. The name appears to be used
here to suggest the Supreme Being, above man's reach.
2 The serpent oj a thousand tongues, Seja, the thousand-headed
snake which is at once the couch and canopy of Vi?nu and which up-
holds the world.
68 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
LVI. NOT ONE BUT TWO
(I. P. 3753. Advaitl to m&jhe ndhi sam&dh&na)
Advait 1 contents me not, but dear to me
The service of thy feet.
O grant me this reward ! To sing of thee
To me how sweet !
Setting us twain, lover and Lord, apart,
This joy to me display.
Grant it to Tuka — Lord of all thou art —
Some day, some day.
LVII. MAN'S EXTREMITY'
(I. P. 64S. M&jha tava khuntala upiva)
Ah, then, O God, the efforts all are vain
By which I've sought thy blessed feet to gain.
First there was loving faith, but faith I've none;
Nowise my restless soul can I restrain.
Then pious deeds, but no good will have I
For these ; nor wealth to help the poor thereby ;
I know not how to honour Brahman guests ;
Alas ! the springs of love in me are dry.
I cannot serve the guru or the saint ;
Not mine to chant the name, with toil to faint,
Perform the sacred rites, renounce the world.
I cannot hold my senses in restraint.
1 Advait, the philosophical doctrine of non-duality, that is, of the
ultimate identity of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul.
Tukaram prefers " the bliss of duality."
2 The poet here enumerates various means by which the divine
favour is sought or by which men endeavour to obtain Release. These
vary from the feeding of Brahmans to attainment of a condition of
unity with Brahman beyond all distinctions. He finds himself unequal
to any of them and finally casts himself upon God's mercy. For a
s imilar testimony on the part of Namdev see No. XVII above.
TUKARAM 69
My heart has never trod the pilgrim's way ;
The vows I make I know not how to pay.
" Ah, God is here," I cry. Not so, not so. 1
For me distinctions have not passed away.
Therefore, I come, O God, to plead for grace,
I, worthy only of a servant's place.
No store of merit such an one requires.
My firm resolve is taken, Tuka says.
LVIII. THOUGH HE SLAY ME
(I. P. 626. Atd tuja kalela te kari)
Now I submit me to thy will,
Whether thou save or whether kill ;
Keep thou me near or send me hence,
Or plunge me in the war of sense. 2
Thee in my ignorance I sought,
Of true devotion knowing nought.
Little could I, a dullard, know,
Myself the lowest of the low.
My mind I cannot steadfast hold ;
My senses wander uncontrolled.
Ah, I have sought and sought for peace.
In vain ; for me there's no release.
Now bring I thee a faith complete
And lay my life before thy feet.
Do thou, O God, what seemeth best;
In thee, in thee alone is rest.
In thee I trust, and, hapless wight,
Cling to thy skirts with all my might.
My strength is spent, I, Tuka say ;
Now upon thee this task I lay.
1 "Ah God is here." He has not attained to a realisation of his
identity with the Supreme Spirit, or, perhaps, he has not realised God's
presence.
2 War of sense, samsara, " wandering," rebirth again and again
in the body.
70 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
LIX. PANDURANG
(I. P. 1033. Kona ahma puse)
Who asks if spent and weary we ?
Who else, O Pandurang, but thee ?
Whom shall we tell our joy or grief?
Who to our thirst will bring relief ?
Who else this fever will assuage ?
Who bear us o'er the ocean's rage ?
Who will our heart's desire impart
And clasp us to his loving heart ?
What other master shall we own ?
What helper else but thee alone ?
Ah, Tuka says, thou knowest all,
Prostrate before thy feet I fall.
LX. COMPLETE SURRENDER
{I. P. 702. Anika dusare maja nahi)
Now Pandurang I've chosen for my part,
None, none but his to be.
In all my thoughts he dwells, dwells in my heart,
Sleeping and waking he.
Yea, all my being's powers before him bow ;
None other faith is aught.
See, Tuka says, mine eyes behold him now,
Standing all wrapt in thought. 1
LXI. TO THY DEAR FEET!
(I. P. 4161. Prema jadale)
To thy dear feet my love I bind :
No other longing stirs my mind.
1 Standing all wrapt in thought. Compare the description on
p. 49 above, of this god as " standing on the brick."
TUKARAM 71
I think of thee through days and nights,
And so discharge my holy rites.
Nought know I but thy name alone : —
Thus to myself myself am known.
When comes at last the hour of death
O save me, save me, Tuka saith.
LXII. HE LEADETH ME
(I. P. 2000. Jethe jato tethe tu)
Holding my hand thou leadest me,
My comrade everywhere.
As I go on and lean on thee,
My burden thou dost bear.
If, as I go, in my distress
I frantic words should say,
Thou settest right my foolishness
And tak'st my shame away.
Thus thou to me new hope dost send,
A new world bringest in ;
Now know I every man a friend
And all I meet my kin.
So like a htopy child I play
In thy dear world, O God,
And everywhere — I, Tuka, say —
Thy bliss is spread abroad.
LXIII. THE JOY OF THE NAME
(I. P. 818. Noma athavita)
Lord, let it be that when thy name
Into my thoughts shall come,
My love to thee shall mount like flame,
My lips with joy be dumb.
Filled are my eyes with happy tears,
With rapture every limb ;
Yea, with thy love my frame appears
Filled to the very brim.
72 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
Thus all my body's strength I'll spend
In hymns of joyful praise ;
Thy name I'll sing nor ever end
Through all the nights and days.
Yea, Tuka says, for ever so
I'll do, for this is best,
Since at the feet of saints, I know,
Is found eternal rest.
LXIV. LOVE'S CAPTIVE
(I .P. 783. Premasutra dorl)
Bound with cords of love I go,
By Hari 1 captive led,
Mind and speech and body, lo,
To him surrendered.
He shall rule my life for he
Is all compassionate.
His is sole authority,
And we his will await.
LXV. THE BHAKTA'S DUTY
(I.P. 1437. Nisthavanta bhSva)
The duty of the man of faith
Is trust and loyalty,
A purpose hid within his heart
That cannot moved be.
A steadfast faith and passionless
In Vitthal that abides,
A faith that not an instant strays
To any god besides.
Who that is such a one as that
Was ever cast away ?
Never has such a tale been told,
Never, I, Tuka, say.
1 Har'i, that is, Krijna.
TUKARAM 73
LXVI. LOVE FINDS OUT GOD
(I. P. 810. Manavacatita tujhe he svarupa)
Thy nature is beyond the grasp
Of human speech or thought.
So love 1 I've made the measure-rod,
By which I can be taught.
Thus with the measure-rod of love
I mete the Infinite.
In sooth, to measure him there is
None other means so fit.
Not Yoga's 2 power, nor sacrifice,
Nor fierce austerity,
Nor yet the strength of thought profound
Hath ever found out thee.
And so, says Tuka, graciously,
Oh Kesav, 3 take, we pray
Love's service that with simple hearts
Before thy feet we lay.
LXVII. "GOD IS OURS"
(I.P.l&'O. Deva amaca amaca)
God is ours, yea, ours is he,
Soul of all the souls that be.
God is nigh without a doubt,
Nigh to all, within, without.
God is gracious, gracious still;
Every longing he'll fulfil.
God protects, protects his own;
Strife and death he casteth down.
Kind is God, ah, kind indeed;
Tuka he will guard and lead.
Love, bhakti or loving devotion. See Introduction, p. 11.
Yoga, see note on p. 36 above. 3 KeSav, Krisna.
74 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
LXVIII. "ONE THING I DO"
(I. P. 2638. Laukika purati nahve majhi seva)
I serve thee, not because
Honour I crave ;
Nay, KeSav, 1 for I am
Thy slave.
Therefore to serve thy feet, —
For this I cry ;
For naught, for naught but this
Crave I.
To my Lord's service, see,
One heart I've brought,
Ever, — without, within, —
One thought.
Thus mine appointed task
Do I somehow ;
Whether 'tis wrong or right
Judge thou.
LXIX. HE KNOWS OUR NEEDS
(I. P. 602. Trailokya palita )
Unwearied he bears up the universe ;
How light a burden I !
Does not his care the frog within the stone
With food supply ?
The bird, the creeping thing, lays up no store :
This great One knows their need.
And if I, Tuka, cast on him my load,
Will not his mercy heed ?
1 KeSav, one of the names of Kri?na.
TUKARAM 75
LXX. " IN HIM ABIDE"
(I. P. 819. Jananl he jane balakace varma)
The mother knows her child, — his secret heart,
His joy or woe.
Who holds the blind man's hand alone can tell
Where he desires to go.
The timid suppliant at his champion's back
Can safely hide.
Who only clings, see, the strong swimmer bears
To the stream's further side.
Vitthal, says Tuka, knows our every need ;
Only in him abide.
LXXI. THE BOLDNESS OF FAITH
(I. P. 716. Bhavasindhuce kaya kode)
Launch upon the sea of life ;
Fear not aught that thou mayst meet.
Stout the ship of Pandurang ;
Not a wave shall wet thy feet.
Many saints await thee there,
Standing on the further shore :
Haste, says Tuka, haste away,
Follow those who've gone before.
LXXII. BEATA CULPA
(I. P. 758. Jari ml nahvto patita)
How couldst thou e'er have cleansed me,
But for my sinful plight ?
So first come I, and then thy grace,
O mercy infinite.
The magic stone 1 was nothing worth,
Till iron brought it fame.
Did no one by the Wish Tree 2 wish,
Whence would it get its name ?
1 The magic stone, parisa, which turns iron into gold.
2 The Wish Tree, kalpataru, a tree in Indra's heaven, supposed
to grant every desire. Compare the kamadhenu, the cow of plenty,
which has a similar property.
76 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
LXXIII. THE SNARE OF PRIDE
(I. P. 1779 Vacecya capalye)
None skilled as I in craft of subtle speech ;
But, ah, the root of things I cannot reach.
Therefore, O Lord of Pandhari, my heart
Is sore distressed. Who knows my inward part ?
I proud became from honour that men paid
To me, — and thus my upward growth was stayed.
Alas ! The way of truth I cannot see,
Held fast by Self in dark captivity.
LXXIV. I AM POOR AND NEEDY
(I. P. 764. Kriyamatihina)
No deeds I've done nor thoughts I've thought
Save as thy servant, I am nought.
Guard me, O God, and O, control
The tumult of my restless soul.
Ah, do not, do not cast on me
The guilt of mine iniquity.
My countless sins, I, Tuka, say,
Upon thy loving heart I lay.
LXXV. A BLIND LEADER OF THE BLIND
(I. P. 1001. Catura ml jalo)
I have grown very wise
In mine own foolish eyes,
But faith has fled.
My life is vain indeed ;
But worse that rage and greed
Dwell in faith's stead.
TUKARAM 77
The world's possessed by sin
And envy reigns within
The human breast ;
And I shall teach mankind,
Though I'm myself as blind
As all the rest.
LXXVI. THE PRIDE OF KNOWLEDGE
(I. P. 2S49. Htna majhl yati)
Though I'm a man of lowly birth
The saints have magnified my worth.
And so within my heart to hide
Has come the great destroyer, pride.
In my fond heart the fancy dwells
That I am wise and no one else.
O, save me, save me, Tuka prays ;
Spent like the wind are all my days.
LXXVII. THE UNVEILING OF LOVE
(I.P. 2966. Jdnoni nenale kari majhe mana)
Enlighten thou mine eyes
Making me lowly wise ;
Thy love to me unveil.
Then in the world I'll be
As, from all soilure free,
The lotus pure and pale.
Whether men praise or jeer,
Hearing I shall not hear ;
Like the rapt yogi 1 I.
To me the world shall seem
Like visions of a dream
That, with our waking, fly.
Till we that state attain
All, all our toil is vain,
I, Tuka, testify.
1 Yogi, see Note on p. 36 above.
78 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
LXXVIII. THE HAVEN
(I. P. 3696. Kajl tnhmi aise nahva kripavanta)
Ah, wherefore so unkind ?
Let my sad breast
At the hid centre find
It's place of rest.
No wind of good or ill
Shall enter there,
But peace, supremely still,
Supremely fair.
To me the flux of things
Brings sore distress ;
The world's mutation brings
But heaviness.
Therefore I, Tulca, cry,
Clinging thy feet,
" Break, break my ' me ' and ' my,' 1
My vain conceit."
LXXIX. WEARINESS
(I. P. 977. Kaya ata ahmi pota ci bharave)
Shall we, sham saints, the world beguile
Glutting our belly's greed the while ?
O tell thy thought, if this it be,
For I am weary utterly.
Shall we the poet's mood rehearse
And string together endless verse ?
Shall Tuka ope his shop 2 again
And, O Narayan, ruin men ?
1 My " me " and " my," see Note on p. 45 above.
' His shop. Tukaram was a seller of grain.
TUKARAM 79
LXXX. GOD'S COUNTERFEIT
(I. P. 347. Je ka rafijale gaiijale)
Is there a man who says of all,
Whether upon them sorrow fall,
Or whether joy — " These, these are mine " ?
That is the saint : mark well the sign.
God dwells in him. The good man's breast
Is of all men's the tenderest.
Is any helpless or undone ?
Be he a slave, be he a son : —
On all alike he mercy shows,
On all an equal love bestows.
How oft must I this tale repeat !
That man is God's own counterfeit.
LXXXI. SELF-SURRENDER
(I. P. 3474. Dild jivabhava)
My self I've rendered up to thee ;
I've cast it from me utterly.
Now here before thee, Lord, I stand,
Attentive to thy least command.
The self within me now is dead,
And thou enthroned in its stead.
Yea, this I, Tuka, testify,
No longer now is "me" or "my."
LXXXII. DYING TO LIVE 1
(I. P. 266S. Apule marana pahile mya dola)
Before my eyes my dead self lies ;
O, bliss beyond compare !
Joy fills the worlds, and I rejoice,
The soul of all things there.
1 This is one of T ulcaram' 's abhangs which is interpreted differently
by those who claim him as a theist and those who claim him as a
80 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
My selfish bonds are loosed, and now
I reach forth far and free.
Gone is the soil of birth and death,
The petty sense of " me."
Narayan's grace gave me this place,
Where I in faith abide.
Now, Tuka. says, my task I've done
And spread the message wide.
LXXXIII. THE ROOT OF LONGING
(I. P. 1436. Aid he samilla khanoni kadhdvi)
Who is he would act the true gosavl's 1 part ?
Let him dig the root of longing from his heart.
If he dare not, in his pleasures let him stay —
Folly were it should he choose another way.
For when longing he hath slain victoriously,
Only then shall he from all come forth set free.
Yea, says Tuka, does thy heart for union thirst ?
Crush — be sure ! — the seed of longing in thee first.
LXXXIV. THE SECRET OF PEACE
(I. P. 580. Santiparate nahi sukha)
Calm 2 is life's crown ; all other joy beside
Is only pain.
Hold thou it fast, thou shalt, whate'er betide,
The further shore attain.
When passions rage and we are wrung with woe
And sore distress,
Comes calm, and then — yea, Tuka. knows it — lo !
The fever vanishes.
follower of advaita pantheism. To the former it seems that the bliss
he describes is that which comes from the death of the lower self and
the presence of God in his heart. To the latter the bliss is that which
is produced by the realisation of his identity with the Supreme Spirit,
and the " self-naughting " is the disappearance of personality itself.
1 Gosavi, a holy man, usually of the Sudra class, who hat
renounced the world. a Calm, 6anti.
TUKARAM 81
LXXXV. THE FELLOWSHIP OF SAINTS
(I. P. 2051. Agnimajl gele)
What enters fire, its former nature lost,
Fire to itself transforms.
Touched by the magic stone, lo, iron now
Gold that the world adorns.
Into the Ganga 1 flow the little streams,
With the great Ganga blent.
Nay, e'en its neighbour trees the sandal tree
Infects with its sweet scent.
So to the feet of saints is Tuka bound,
Linked in a blest content.
LXXXVI. THE SIMPLE PATH
(I. P. 2341. Bahutd chandace bahu vase jann)
Diverse men's thoughts as are their vanities,
Distract not thou thy mind to follow these.
Cling to the faith that thou hast learned, the love
That, coming, filled thee with its fragrances.
For Hari's worship is a mother, — rest
It is and peace, shade for the weariest.
Why, then, who 'ies a stone about his neck
And drowns himself, is but a fool confessed.
LXXXVII. THE WAY OF LOVE
(I. P. 15S9. Ghotavina lata)
The learned in Brahma I shall make to long
With new desire ; those once so safe and strong,
Set free, I bring back glad to bondage. So,
They are. made one with Brahma by a song. 2
1 Gafigd, the river Ganges.
2 By a song, that is, by the klrtan, the method of celebrating the
praise of the god by music and singing. This is one of the chief
methods of bhakti, as followed by Tukaram, and he praises it as more
effective than the way of knowledge followed by the philosopher or
than any other way. See Introduction, p. 24.
82 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
God is their debtor 1 now, O glad release.
I'll bid the weary pilgrim take his ease.
The proud ascetic may forsake his pride.
Away with offerings and charities !
By love and true devotion life's high goal
I'll help men to attain — yea, Brahma's soul. 2
" O, happy we, who Tuka's face have seen " —
So men will say and Tuka they'll extol.
LXXXVIII. THE; THIEF
(I. P. 4265. Jalo balivanta houniya SaranSgata)
I came to him in woful plight ;
He, gracious, girded me with might.
His house I entered unaware
And stole the treasure hidden there.
So I have wrought a deep design
That all his riches shall be mine.
I kissed his feet and then by stealth
I, Tuka, robbed him of his wealth.
LXXXIX. THE TRAVELLER
(I.P. 31S9. Ksanaksana haci karSva vicara)
Let thy thought at all times be, —
Over life's tempestuous sea
We must fare.
Soon the body perisheth ;
Life is swallowed up of Death.
O beware !
Seek the fellowship of saints ;
Seek, until thy spirit faints,
Heaven's ways !
Let not dust make blind thine eyes,
Dust of worldly enterprise,
Tuka says.
1 God is their debtor, because he desires, and gets from them, love.
' Brahma's soul, the real essence of Brahma, which is the goal of
all Hindu religious effort.
TUKARAM 83
XC. BY FAITH ALONE
(I.P- 949 Athave deva)
In God, in God — forget him not ! —
Do thou thy refuge find.
Let every other plan or plot
Go with the wind !
Why toil for nought ? Wake, wake from sleep !
By learning's load weighed down,
Thou in the world's abysses deep
Art like to drown.
O, flee from thence. Only by faith
Canst thou to God attain.
And all thy knowledge, Tuka saith,
Will prove in vain.
XCI. A STEADFAST MIND
(I.P. 109. Mana apamana gove)
Honour, dishonour that men may pay,
Bundle them up and throw them away.
Where there if ever a steadfast mind,
There thou the vision of God shalt find.
Whereso the fountains of peace abide,
Stayed is the passage of time and tide.
Calm thou the impulse that stirs thy breast;
Surely, says Tuka, a small request.
XCII. THE NAME OF THE LIVING ONE
(I.P. 1462. Deva aike he vinanti)
Hear, O God, my supplication, —
Do not grant me Liberation. 1
1 Liberation, moksa, mukti, absorption in the Supreme Spirit with
its consequence that he will not be reborn. He does not wish this gift,
but desires to live in the world, experiencing the love of devotion as a
Vaijnavite, a follower of bhakti. Cf. Note on p. 35 above.
-I ~.
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-
86 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
If the children buy and sell in make-believe,
Who should joy or grieve,
Gain or lose ?
Are not maidens still in kinship just the same,
Though they wedded in a game,
Girl with girl ?
Joy or sorrow that we meet with in our dreams
To us waking seems
Nothing real.
So, says Tuka, births and dying, — nought is true.
Bondage, freedom too,
Weary me.
XCVII. "THE WORLD PASSETH AWAY"
(I. P. 2811. Gele palale divasa roza)
Who dares call aught his own
As swiftly speed the days ?
Time keeps the fatal score,
And not a moment strays.
Hair, ears, and eyes grow old,
As, dullard, grow they must ;
The best is nigh thee, yet
Thou fill'st thy mouth with dust.
Dying and yet thou buildst
As for eternity !
Nay, haste to Pandurang !
'Tis Tuka says it : flee !
XCVIII. THE WAY OF DEATH.
(I. P. 1562. Eka pahatasa ekaci dahane)
Ah, friend, beware ; see how they bear
The dead men to the ghaut. 1
To God on high with agony
Call and cease not.
1 The ghaut, the burning ghaut where the bodies of the dead are
cremated.
TUKARAM 87
Though 'mong the dead not numbered,
Within thy scrip is death.
Fill up, fill up with good thy cup,
While thou hast breath.
List what I say ; — the narrow way
Is dense with dying men ;
'Mong them at last thy lot is cast.
No succour then.
XCIX. "THE NIGHT COMETH"
(I.P. 2693. Nene japatapa anusthana ySga)
Lo, Death draws nigh ; and what know I
Of rite, or vow, or prayer ?
To God alone who guards his own
I flee and hide me there.
The tally's 1 score grows more and more, —
Then night and all is done.
Hear Tuka say, — dear every day
From that grim robber won.
C. 'TIS ALL FOR NAUGHT
(Catttr^ace yoge kavitva karltl)
With whatso skill he may his verse refine,
'Tis all for naught without the breath divine.
Let him put on the holy beggar's dress ;
'Tis all for naught without unworldliness.
He paints the sun or moon upon a wall ;
'Tis all for naught without the light of all.
O, he may play, of course, a soldier's part;
'Tis all for naught without a warrior heart.
So, Tuka says, they've danced and songs they've sung,
'Tis naught without the love of Pandurafig.
1 The tally. In counting it is often the custom in India to put aside
a piece of wood or other article for each quantity counted, so as to keep
the score.
88 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
CI. THE DIVINE INSPIRATION
(I. P. 2949. Apuliya bale)
'Tis not I who speak so featly ;
All my words my Lover's are.
Hark, Salunki 1 singing sweetly,
Taught, as I, by One afar.
How could I, abject, achieve it ?
'Tis the all-upholding One.
Deep his skill, who can conceive it ?
He can make the lame to run.
CII. DROWNING MEN
(I. P. 94S. Upakarasathi bolo he upaya)
For men's saving I make known
These devices — this alone
My desire.
Can my heart unmoved be
When before my eyes I see
Drowning men ?
I shall see them with my eyes
When their plight they realise
At the last.
CIH. WITHOUT AND WITHIN
(I. P. 2S69. All sithhasthparvani)
Soon as the season of Sirhhasth 2 comes in,
The barber and the priest — what wealth they win!
Thousands of sins may lurk within his heart,
If only he will shave his head and chin !
What is shaved off is gone, but what else, pray ?
What sign that sin is gone ? His evil way
Is still unchanged. Yea, without faith and love
All is but vanity, I, Tuka, say.
1 Salunki, a common Indian bird, gracula religiosa.
3 The season of Siiiihasth, the period during which the planet Jupi-
ter is in the constellation Leo. "The period is considered favourable
for the washing away of sins, and Hindus go to holy places, such as
Nasik, shave iheir heads and moustaches and bathe in the river." —
Bhandarkar's Vaisnavism, p. 94, Note.
TUKARAM 89
CIV. "AND HAVE NOT CHARITY"
(I.P. 90. Tila jalile tandula)
Your heart from rage and lust has nowise turned
For all the rice and sesamum 1 you've burned.
You've toiled for naught with learned words whose fruit
Is vain display — and Pandurang you've spurned.
By pilgrimage and grim austerity
Only your pride has grown ; your " I " and " me " 2
Swell with your alms ; the secret, Tuka says,
You've missed : your acts are sinful utterly.
CV. THE MENDICANT
(I.P. 679. Asabaddha vakta)
Lust binds the preacher, fear
The doubting hearts of those his words who hear.
He knows not what he sings :
His mouth he opes for what each comer brings.
A greedy cat, he steals
From door to door, begging from men his meals.
What Tuka says is true ;
The sack is empty and the measure 3 too.
CVI. THE PROUD ADVAITIST
(I.P. 1471. Naikave kani)
To such pay thou no heed: the words he saith
Are only chaff, empty of loving faith.
He praises high Advait* which only brings
To speaker and to hearer pain and scaithe.
1 Rice and sesamum, offerings given to gods.
■ Your "I" and " me." See Note on p. 45 above.
3 The measure is a vessel by means of which grain is measured from
the heap into the sack.
* Advait, the doctrine of the identity of the individual soul and the
Supreme Soul, which is expressed in the Sanscrit phrase, " Brahm-
asmi," " I am Brahm."
The saints are the adherents of the bhakti doctrine, which is not, of
course, monistic.
90 PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
He fills his belly saying, " I am Brahm."
Waste not thy words upon him ; shamed and dumb
Is he, blasphemer, when he meets the saints.
Who scorns God's love Tuka calls vilest scum.
CVII. THE HYPOCRITE: I
(I. P. 60S. Boll mcindacl)
His speech — the hypocrite's — is well and fair,
But all his thought is how he can ensnare.
He outwardly appears a godly man ;
In truth he is a very ruffian.
His forehead-mark, 1 his beads, a saint denote,
But in the darkness he would cut your throat.
Ay, Tuka says, a very scoundrel he ;
The pains of Yama 2 wait him certainly.
CVIII. THE HYPOCRITE: II
(I. P. 776. D ol vadhavuni keSa)
Possessed with devils they grow long their hair.
No saints are they, nor trace of God they bear.
They tell of omens to a gaping crowd.
Rogues are they, Tuka says ; Govind's 3 not there.
1 The forehead-mark indicates the sect to which he belongs, while
a rosary of beads is worn round the neck.
3 Yama, the god of the under-world, who punishes the wi.krcl.
8 Govind, Krisna.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The most recent and most authoritative account in
English of the Maratha poets is to be found in the Wilson
Philological Lectures (1917) of Professor W. B. Patwar-
dhan, of the Fergusson, College, Poona. These have been
printed in the Fergusson College Magazine, Vol. VIII,
Nos. 3 and 4, and Vol. IX, Nos. 1-4. An earlier lecture
by Professor Patwardhan, on " Some Abhahgs of Namdev,"
appeared in the same Magazine, Vol. Ill, No. 4. An
article by Professor Patwardhan, on "Tukaram's Doctrine
of Bhakti," was published in the Indian Interpreter, Vol.
VII, No. 1 ; and in the same magazine, Vol. VII, No. 4,
Rev. D. Mackichan, D.D., LL.D., writes on "The
Marathas and Their Literature." A chapter of Sir
R. G. Bhandarkar's Vaisuavism, Saivism, and Minor
Religious Systems (Encyclopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research)
is devoted to Namdev and Tukaram, and gives a number
of translations of their abhaiigs. Reference may also be
made to the " Note" " prefixed to Molesworth's Marathi
Dictionary by Dr. John Wilson, and to contributions by
Dr. Murray Mitchell in the Transactions of the Bombay
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. Ill (1849) and
in the Transactions of the Congress of Orientalists, 1892.
For an account of these saints in their relation to the
historical situation of their times, see M. G. Ramade's
Rise of the Maratha Power, Chapter VIII. See also Tales
of the Saints of Pandharpur, by C. A. Kincard, (Oxford
University Press, 1919).
The poems of Tukaram have been translated into
English prose by J. Nelson Fraser and K. B. Marathe, 3
Vols., Christian Literature Society, Madras (1909-15).
INDEX
A BHANG 11, 14, 16, 26, 34
Advaita21,25, 26, 68, 80, 89
Akrura 52, 53
Alandi 14
Amrit Anubhav 14, 15
Arjiina 52, 53
Arnold, Matthew 30
D ALI 52, 53
D Benares 20
Bhagavadgiti 14
Bhagvata Purana 51
Bhajan 12, 40 '
Bhakti 21, 24, 32, 52, 53, 81, 89
Bhandarkar, Sir R. G. 15, 18
Bhavartha Ramayana 53
Bhima 11, 54
Bhupati 52, 53
Brahman 17, 24, 25, 30, 38, 42,
68, 82, 89
PAITANYA 19, 22
^ Coka Mela 23
DEHU 19, 20, 59
Dharma 35, 85
ECKHART 27
Ekanath 12, 23, 51-55
pANGES 20, 54, 81
^* Godaveri 23
Govind 48, 90
HARI 38, 72
Haridas 12, 45
Hebrew Psalmists 27, 28, 29, 31,
32
HrisikeSa 43
NDRAYANI 20
TANABAI 16, 17, 49, 50
J Janardan 54
Jnandev 1 12, 13-15, 19, 22, 24
JnaneSvar J 25, 35-40, 41
JfianeSvari 13, 14, 15, 35-38
[/■ABIR22, 25, 26
1X Kamala 44
Karhad 15
KeSav 17, 44, 73, 74
KeSav Caitanya 19
Kirtan 12, 81
Krisna 11, 24, 35, 44, 45, 84
lyiADHAV 40
m Mahar 23
Maruti 52, 53
Maya 17
Mount Mem 17, 37
Muhammadanism 18, 31
Muktabal 14, 41, 42
Mukti, Moksa 35, 83
Mutiny 31
MAGNATH 16
x> Namdev 13, 15-18, 24, 42-48
Narayana 58, 60, 62, 67, 80
Nivrittinath 14, 42
DAITHAN 23
r Pandav 36
Pandhari 111, 18, 23, 44, 57,
Pandharpiirf 76
Prah'lad 39, 52, 53
Pundlik 49
Purinas 45
94
PSALMS OF MARATHA SAINTS
RAGHAV Caitanya 19
Rama 52, 53
Ranade, M. G. 12, 15, 18
Ramananda 22
Release 35, 68, 69
Rukmini. U 45
Rakhumaij '
CANKARACARYA 25
Sena 55
Simhasth 88
Sivaji 18
Sopandev 14, 42
§ri Suka 52, 53
TAGORE, Sir Rabindranath
26
Tukarim 12, 13, 18-21, 23, 25,
28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 56-90
u
DDHAV 39, 51
•WAIKUNTHA 20, 64, 85
* Vasudev 47
Vedant 24
Vi^nu 11
11, 15, 16, 19, 23 40,
44, 49, 50, 57, 60,
62, 65, 66, 72
Vithoba
Vitthal
Vyasa 39
YAMA90
1 Yoga, Yogi 36, 39, 73, 77
II
INDEX OF TRANSLATIONS
JNANESVAR
Jiianesvari ix, 18Sff ., p. 35
Do. ix, 197ff., p. 36
Do. xii, 1.97ff., p. 37
Do. xvi, 114ff., p. 37
Abhangs, pp. 38-40
MUKTABAl
Abhangs, p. 41
NAMDEV
Abhangs :
Avate 198, p. 50; do, 207, p.
46; do. 333, p. 44; do. 351,
p. 44; do. 358, p. 42; do.
391, p. 45; do. 501, p. 44 ;
do. 583, p. 47; do. 586;
p. 48 ; do. 938, p. 42 ; do,
416, p. 47 ; do. 1449, p. 46.
do. 1482, p. 43
EKANATH
Bhagavat, xi, 1458ff., p. 51
Bhavartha Ramayana, Chap, i,
p. S3
Abhangs, pp. 52, 54-55
SENA
Abhang, p. 55.
TUKARAM
Abhangs: I. P. 90, p. 89 ; do.
109, p. 83; do. 260, p. 85
do. 266, p. 56 ; do. 300, p
85 ; do. 347, p. 79 ; do. 469
p. 58; do. 502, p. 57; do
520, p. 85 ; do. 530, p. 56
do. 580, p. 80; do. 602, p
74; do. 603, p. 90; do. 626,
p. 69 ; do. 648, p. 68 ; do
702, p. 70; do. 716, p. 75
do. 758, p. 75 ; do. 764
p. 76; do. 776, p. 90; do
783, p. 72; do. 806, p. 62
do. 801, p. 73; do. 818
p. 71 ; do. 819, p. 75 ; do
827, p. 58 ; do. 868, p. 62
do. 948, p. 88; do. 949
p. 83; do. 977, p. 78; do
1001, p. 76; do. 1031
p. 63; do. 1033, p. 70; do
1368, p. 84; do. 1436
p. 80; do. 1437, p. 72; do
1462, p. 83; do. 1471
p. 89; do. 1482, p. 89; do
1540, p. 62 ; do. 1562, p. 86
do. 1589, p. 81 ; do. 1779
p. 76 ; do. 1820, p. 57 ; do
1836, p. 59; do. 1870, p. 73
do. 1996, p. 64 ; do. 2000
p. 71 ; do. 2051, p. 81; do
2341, p. 81; do. 2638, p. 74
do. 2668, p. 79; do. 2672
p. 64 ; do. 2693, p. 87 ; do
2811, p. 86; do. 2824, p. 60
do. 2849, p. 77 ; do. 2869
p. 88 ; do. 2949, p. 88
do. 2966, p. 77 ; do. 3189
p. 82; do. 3443, p. 64
do. 3474, p. 79 ; do. 3653
p. 61 ; do. 3695, p. 65
do. 3696, p. 78; do. 3753
p. 68 ; do. 3837, p. 66
do. 4004, p. 65 ; do. 4161
p. 70; do. 4265, p. 82; do
4361, p. 67: do. 4381, p. 61
do. 4419, p. 66; do. 4420,
p. 67
An abhang not in the Indu
PrakaS collection is translated
on p. 87
By the same Author
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