The most popular of all the Maharashtrian devotional saints is undoubtedly Sant Tukaram (1608?-1650). His songs for Vitthala of Pandharpur so deeply influenced Marathi literature and culture that they literally have become part of Maharashtra’s public memory! There is no home, no village where someone doesn’t memorize at least a couple of Tukoba’s abhangs – many know hundreds by heart! Coming from an ordinary background, showing his full tangible humanness by laying bare his anxieties, sufferings, weaknesses; speaking the simple tongue of the common people, Tukaram is very much a saint the masses can identify with; they regard him as one of themselves!
In a famous abhang –santa kripa jhali–his disciple Bahinabai visualizes this Bhakti-Sampraday, the Varkari-Panth, as a temple built over the last eight centuries with the contributions and blessings of all the sants, culminating in Sant Tukaram as the kalash or pinnacle. Not because he was greater than the other saints in his realizations, but because the teachings of this grand, straight and simple path of bhakti came to full fruition in him. He is the people’s poet – millions of illiterate villagers have been voicing their prayers of love of God through Tukoba’s abhangs, receiving all necessary spiritual instructions through them.
He not only realized God himself, but brought God-realization within the easy reach of all!
‘Jnanoba – Tukaram’ are the two great names chanted by hundreds of thousands of Varkaris during the annual Ashad-pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Sant Jnaneshvar–the foundation, and Sant Tukaram–the pinnacle, contain within them the blessings of all the other bhakti-saints over the centuries.
Life
Sant Tukaram (1608?-1650) was born in Dehu, a small village near Pune, not far away from Alandi, the sanjivan-samadhi of Sant Jnaneshvar. Both towns lie on the banks of the river Indrayani.
Tukaram’s family were devoted Varkaris going back for generations. One of his ancestors, Vishvambar, was so attracted to Lord Vitthala that he would walk the distance of 250 km to Pandharpur twice a month for ekadashis! Moved by this great ‘love-toil’ of their bhakta, Vitthal and Rukmini manifested in two black stone murtis in Dehu itself and became Tukaram’s ancestral deities!
Tukaram himself wrote many autobiographical abhangs. He calls himself a ‘Kumbi’, a peasant and trader. Having inherited the office of ‘Mahajan’, they were also revenue-collectors and moneylenders. The family was initially well-off and by no means socially backward. Tukaram, the second of three sons, was married early and since his first wife was ailing and couldn’t cope with the household chores, he married a second time.
Then adversity struck. His parents died and he had to shoulder the burden of his extended family at the tender age of 17. Initially he showed a good hand with his father’s business, but gradually he ran into losses. In a terrible famine his first wife Rakhuma and his elder son starved to death, and though he strove hard, borrowed money and tried various trades, he was driven to bankruptcy and penury. The village council humiliated him and stripped him of his ‘mahajan’ title!
Tukaram became very desperate. Devastated by the horrors of the famine and failure after failure to make a living, he now turned whole-heartedly to their family-deity Vitthala.
In an autobiographical abhang he says kaya khave ata…, ‘What to eat? Where to go? What to do? On whose support? I’m tired of everything – I shall now go and find out Vitthala!’
Tukoba’s one-pointed devotion
He set out with an unparalleled one-pointedness, thinking day and night of nothing else than Panduranga. He repaired the old Vitthala shrine and spent most of the time there or in the wilderness of the nearby Bhandara and Bhamchander hills, meditating on Vitthala and trying to study the Jnaneshvari and other writings of the previous sants. He entirely stopped working for a living. There was no income and he hardly paid attention to household responsibilities; his wife had to fend for herself with the children.
There was this extreme desire to see the Lord, but he felt shame and extreme anguish about his faults and shortcomings! He was in constant warfare with himself! All he wanted was a vision of Vitthal’s feet! The element of seeking–begging for compassion–is so dominant in Tuka like in none of the other saints.
He sings tujalagi majha jiva jhala pisa…, ‘hunting after you my life has become mad! I’m seeing everywhere only Panduranga! I left all worldly affairs! In my mind there is only the sound of his name! I’m in total anguish—like a panting, twisting fish out of water! Tuka says: the only remedy now is to obtain his feet!’ or anika dusare maj nahi ata… ‘now there is nothing else for me—Pandurang in my mind, in my thoughts, awake and also dreaming! My eyes see only one—Him on the brick!’ Many times he uses the expression: ‘Vitthal, I’m entirely sold to you! My head is like a sacrificial animal at your feet—do with me what you want!’ People first regarded him as mad; but his devotion to Vitthala and his compassion for everyone won them over. He helped everyone in need, even animals! And he never made a difference between his own family and others.
Legends tell that Vitthala himself on various occasions came in disguise to help Tuka’s household with grains, money and other goods. Tukaram however wanted to live on the grace of God from day to day, and although his own children didn’t have much to eat, he always immediately distributed any surplus—to the great frustration of his wife Avali! Though in the worldly sense she was a good wife, she was a great nag and forever berating Vitthala, calling him the ‘black destroyer of her samsar’!
Tuka practically led the life of a renunciate; not because he advocated such a way of life in order to find God, but because he made God so central in his life that everything else simply dropped off. He never thought about his body, he ate and slept when nature compelled, but he took no interest in it. Tukaram did not advise this lifestyle for everybody! The Varkaris are all hardworking householders – peasants, labourers, traders, and the like who integrate bhakti, bhajan and the recommended pilgrimages to Pandharpur– the varis–into their life. Sannyasis are generally not found here!
Sant Namdev in a Dream
About this time Sant Namdev appeared to him in a dream, asking him to compose abhangs. More than 300 years ago Namdev Maharaj had vowed to write one billion abhangs for Vitthala, but had fallen short by several thousand–Tukaram was now to complete the task.
But Tukaram was diffident to accept this mystic invitation. He sang, ‘How can I compose? I never had a real darshan! I can sing with justification only if I have seen you, Vitthal!’ There are such strong parallels between Sant Namdev and Sant Tukaram–in their writings and fervour of their bhakti–that people regard Tukaram Maharaj as an incarnation of Sant Namdev.
Tukaram finds his Guru
Tukaram did not have a guru in flesh and blood. He tells us that he received initiation in a dream. Stating the specific day he says: ‘My Guru appeared in my dream. He put his hand on my head, told his name as Babaji Chaitanya, mentioned his spiritual lineage and gave me the mantra: ‘Ram Krishna Hari’! It is assumed that his Guru came from the shishya-parampara of Sant Jnaneshvar. He experienced a fullness of being like never before and took to the mantra with all his heart.
Darshan
After the agonies of Tukaram reached an extreme stage, Vitthala gave him darshan on the Bhamchander hill. One can visit this cave even today in the outskirts of Dehu. Tukaram sings: ‘My anxiety and doubts are at an end, my previous outlook has entirely changed! I’m filled with infinite bliss, His light is like a million moons! Wherever I go God pursues me now! Everything has become auspicious, I see God everywhere, I prostrate in front of rivers, trees and stones! Blessed that my love was fixed in His name!’ Again, he says: ‘How could an uneducated fool have the power to speak what transcends the Vedas? He fills every nook and cranny of me! I bear his stamp! Now my only business is to spread this easy road to the world and carry them over the ocean of life!’ Tukaram started singing in street processions with tal and chipli performing kirtan.
The ‘Drowning of the Gatha’
Though Tukaram Maharaj had a great following, there were many who hated him. After all it was something completely unheard of: a Shudra guru who gave the message of the Vedas in the vernacular Marathi and who had even brahmin disciples! Starting right back in the 13 C.E. with Sant Jnaneshvar this radical bhakti-movement had been in constant conflict with the brahminical rules, ritualism and the caste-system. The Brahmins felt very offended! They sent a great scholar named Rameshvar Bhatt to charge Tukoba with heresy for writing the secrets of the Vedas in Marathi while being of a low-caste.
He forced Tukaram Maharaj to destroy his abhang manuscripts by immersing them in the Indrayani river. Though Tukaram meekly complied, it was the worst ordeal. The Gatha was his life-achievement, his song-offering of love for Vitthala! That Vitthala allowed them to be destroyed meant that everything was meaningless! Tukaram Maharaj went on a fast unto death. Then, after 13 days the Gatha bundle floated up dry and intact, and he had Vitthala’s darshan!
This was a turning point in his career as poet and saint. His detractors were silenced, and he became phenomenally popular in his lifetime. And his persecutor Ramesh Bhatt became one of his prime disciples who wrote the famous Arati Tukarama and the abhang ‘Repeat his name— Tukaram, Tukaram—and death is trembling!’ His brahmin disciple Bahinabai states: ‘His abhangs were magical, his personality charismatic!’ People started arriving from faraway places of Maharashtra. He had a group of 14 tal-bearers who followed him everywhere to play the cymbals (tal) in his kirtans. Marathi-speaking people were brought together like never before with the audience singing along in the chorus. His message was easy to understand and simple in nature.
Chatrapati Shivaji
Even the great king Chatrapati Shivaji had heard about the saint and was very eager to meet him. Yet Tukaram Maharaj declined an invitation to the kingly court. He refused all honours and kingly patronage and chose to live life day to day accepting its uncertainties. Legend tells that the king himself came to Dehu with precious gifts, but Tukaram Maharaj rejected them all saying. amhi tene sukhi… ‘I am happy if you say Vitthala, Vitthala! What is for you a great treasure is for me equal to dust! Wear tulsibeads on the neck and keep the Ekadashi-fast, tell that you are a servant of Hari—that is what makes me happy!’ and mungi ani rava …. ‘ants and kings are all the same to me!’ Shivaji wanted to renounce his kingdom then, but Tukaram Maharaj asked him not to leave his dharma. After Sant Tukaram’s disappearance Chatrapati Shivaji became the disciple of Sri Samartha Ramdas.
Sant Tukaram leaves for Vaikunth
If we set his year of birth as 1608, Sant Tukaram disappeared at the age of 42 without a trace. People believe that Vitthal himself came on Garuda during one of his ecstatic kirtans and carried him away to Vaikuntha—with his mortal body! We have samadhis of all the other saints, but not of Tukaram! Intriguingly he left a set of farewell abhangs, where he tells that he is leaving for good for Panduranga was calling! He requested everybody to stick to the holy name, he solicited their blessings and vanished.
The Abhangs
What Tukaram Maharaj left for us are around 4500 abhangs which are known as Tukaram Gatha. His abhangs are more popular and widely sung than those of the other sants, and there are great Varkari Maharajs who know the whole Gatha by heart! Tukaram’s abhangs can be easily discerned by his mudra in the last line, Tuka mhane, ‘says Tuka’. Unfortunately, there is no chronological order in the abhangs; they appear as a huge jumbled up collection! Among them we find many socio-critical abhangs–against false sadhus and pandits, about the hypocrisy of brahmins, against the worship of many different idols, against superstition and caste etc. Apart from the different bhakti-topics, his abhangs for Vitthala can be categorized into abhangs of great agony and yearning, abhangs of resignation and waiting, and abhangs of indifference. In the latter ones he challenges even the existence of God! He accuses Vitthala of not keeping his promise. He sings, ‘God is nothing but a meaningless word, an empty symbol! I’m ashamed to call myself your servant! You are a beggar and a liar! I refuse to utter your name again! Would I have known you don’t exist, I would have not hankered after you!’ And then there are the songs of bliss, where he tells how everything entirely changed after getting Vitthala’s darshan, how his limbs are bathed in waves of indescribable bliss!
Vitthal’s form
The most popular of all his abhangs is ‘sundara te dhyana…, which along with Sant Jnaneshvar’s rupa pahata locanim… is sung as an invocation during any bhajan or kirtan. Here Tukaram Maharaj describes Vitthala’s enchanting form standing on a brick, hand on the waist, with tulsi garlands around his neck, yellow dhoti, decorated with fish-shaped earrings and the kaustubha-gem. Tuka says: ‘He is all my happiness! I always love to think of him like this!’; and Tuka was very particular that he wanted to see Vitthala exactly like this and not in any other form!
Tukaram is like the other bhakti saints firm in his sagun approach. He says: nako brahmajnana… ‘I don’t want brahmajnana – I’m your bhakta and you are my Deva, keep it like this! I want to see your face, want to embrace you, want to speak with you! Don’t make late now, enchanter of the Gopis, keep your feet on my head!’
Vitthal as a mother
Tukaram felt himself much like a little boy and Vitthala as his mother. He chides Vitthala: ‘What mother are you that you left your child in the forest alone!? How could a mother not fulfill the wishes of her darling child?’ He pleads: bhetivancuniya duje nahi chitti… ‘No other thought than to meet you! Come and whisper to me loving words, let us eat the food of bliss together! Mother and child are not separate—they eat together from one plate!’ Again, he sings: thakalose dvari… ‘I’m a beggar standing at your door! Vitthala, I want some alms— send me out some little love-tokens!’
On the human birth
The Varkaris don’t have a self-negating, renouncing approach to life. Tuka says: barve jhalo alo ya janmasi … ‘It was good that I took birth and acquired a human body, a vessel of bliss, the greatest gain! He gave the five senses—hands, feet, ears, eyes and a mouth to speak! If you, Vitthala, join to them and be the sole object of perception, then the bhavarog, the disease of worldly life is destroyed!’
About the sharira, the body, he says: sharira dukhace kothara… ‘The body is a storehouse of misery, full of diseases and impurities, the cause of entanglement in Maya—at the same time this body is the best of all, you can reach with it Parabrahma, you can break with it the fetters of samsar! Tuka says: Quickly use it to do bhajans of the Lord!’
Letters
Special to Sant Tukaram are a set of abhangs titled Patrika. These are wistful letters which Tukoba formulated for Vitthala when once he was too sick to join the pilgrimage to Pandharpur. He sent them along with the Varkaris passing by his house.
Pandharpur
In many wonderful abhangs he invites people to go to Pandharpur and plunder there the unlimited treasure of the holy name. He calls the city a touchstone and wish fulfilling tree! sakala tirthahuni Pandhari mukutamani… ‘What can I tell you about the splendour of Pandhari, the crest jewel of all tirthas! There the husband of Lakshmi stands on a brick! No need of vows, pilgrimages, alms—the same punya you get here by just having one darshan of Vitthala! Sadhus and sants sing his name! It’s a place of absolute rest for all beings! Tuka says: No matter how many praises I heap on Pandhari— it’s never enough!’
Who are the Sants?
The association with these supreme bhaktas, who have made Vitthala their all in all, is one of the most significant elements of the Varkari Sampraday. ‘Sant is God and God is Sant!’ Many sants plead for this divine association in their abhangs, and Tukaram Maharaj stresses it the most. ‘A saint who gives himself over to the Lord and is entirely without desire is the ornament of all ornaments, greater than a touchstone or wish-fulfilling tree! All he sees and speaks is God! I want to be the sand and pebbles in Pandharpur where the sants walk!’
He lists up their qualities: ‘The servants of Hari are entirely free from fear, desire, worry and hope! They are full of compassion, see everybody as equal, and friend and foe alike! They have no ego and pride, and they calmly bear the buffets of the world! They never engage in miracle-mongering! They have abandoned the world—they need no honour or perishable goods! God’s name is ever on their tongue, they are filled in and out with the Lord and they bear his seal! People live at their feet!’
Upadesh
Tukaram Maharaj recommended constant repetition of God’s name with one-pointed devotion and holding on to Vitthala’s feet in one’s heart! ‘Say his name with such love that God stands before you! You don’t need to go anywhere—God comes home! The name is utterly sweet—repeating it, all bad qualities drop off automatically! Among all sadhanas the holy name is the greatest and most effective! Go and plunder Pandhari! There is the marketplace of God’s name—and it’s all free!’
God’s grace is most important because you cannot enforce spiritual vision! But if you call him with tears and all satvika bhavas, he cannot hold himself back and he will give darshan! svalpa vate cale jaun … ‘After God’s embrace you will see him everywhere! Then why mortify the body? You can dance now! Why in solitude? There is great bliss in the company of the sants!’ ‘I’m walking the simple and easy road—and I’m singing Vitthala! You and me in merry playfulness, roaring, shouting in bliss! Carrying flags, adorned with gopichandan and tulsimalas! Tuka says: This road is straight and goes right to Vaikuntha!’
Tukaram Maharaj expects from his Varkaris very high moral values. All men and women are considered as Panduranga and Rukmini! The worst is to hanker after somebody else’s wife or property! Among other qualities he emphasizes utter simplicity, truthfulness, humility and steadfastness.
The hardcore Varkaris
Among the hundreds of thousands of Varkaris, there are groups who take Sant Tukaram’s message in a very literal way. They try to follow all his precepts, and these ‘hardcore Varkaris’ are the personification of simplicity. They practically live on the road, walking up and down Pandharpur-Alandi on Ekadashis, during which they fast and sing throughout the night. They receive food and clothing as is needed to survive, and they lead a life of bhajan absorbed in Vitthala. With their worn-out dhotis, stitched up bags, lota and tal dangling from their shoulders, sleeping on plastic sheets and gunny bags, they take pride in living life day to day, accepting the uncertainties of life. The frequent expression in the abhangs: kaya vaca mana samarpana, ‘surrender body, speech, and mind’ is what they practice.
Dehu and the Tukaram Palkhi
Every year in March (phalgun), the little town Dehu celebrates Sant Tukaram’s Vaikunth-Arohan or ascension to Vaikuntha. It is a one-day festival of bhajan where hundred thousand of Varkaris fill up every nook and corner. It is called the ‘Tukaram Beej’. Pandharpur, Alandi, Dehu and Paithan are the most venerable places for the Varkaris.
In June/July the Tukaram Palkhi sets out from Dehu for the Ashad – Yatra (the ‘Vari’) with hundred thousands of Varkaris walking to Pandharpur for the great Ashad Ekadashi. The Tukaram Palkhi is next to the Jnaneshvar Palkhi the most prestigous.
The journey itself has the greatest significance—the pilgrims become the embodiment of this many century old tradition. It is open to all, and it is considered a great honour and privilege to walk the sacred road to Pandharpur. Here on the road everybody is deemed a sant.
Vitthal’s heroes and the timeless Pandharpur
Tukaram Maharaj appears so meek and gentle, yet there are several abhangs where his voice is full of power. He is aware of his ability to inspire people and claims the status of a messenger: amhi namace dharaka… and kas ghaloni balkat… ‘I have wrestled with time and death and made a pathway over the ocean of samsara! I have come! I’m the bearer of the name! I bear the stamp of Vithoba!’ In many an abhang he says: eka gave amhi vithobace nama… ‘There is no more birth and death, I promise! I planted my foot on the forehead of death!’ ‘I have destroyed the razorblade narrow path so difficult to cross—now we can walk a broad road fit for a king! Take out the mridangam, the vina and the tal! Let’s enjoy, let’s taste brahmarasa, “the Bliss of the Absolute”! Now I have no other work than to sing Vithoba’s name! Tuka says: Even the greatest sinner becomes a jivanmukta and crosses over in no time!’
Speaking of the ‘Warriors of Vitthala.’ he says: ‘The only true warriors in the world are the sants—they are softer than butter, but they can cleave a diamond—not to fight for material goods like land and property, but to fight faults and bad qualities! What has to be destroyed are the fetters of samsar!’ Tukaram Maharaj envisaged a united world in the footsteps of these sants! He says vira vitthalace gadhe… ‘Death even falls at the feet of these powerful warriors of Vitthala! When they thunderously roar the names of Hari up in the sky, they burn all faults. Their weapons are forgiveness, compassion and peace!’
Tuka’s vision is a Pandhari beyond time and death! The city of the sants, the city of love and joy, where there is no pride of caste, where people fall at each other’s feet, where everybody is equal! A place where Vitthala comes out of the priest-and-ritual controlled temple to dance with his bhaktas on the sand bed of the river! Tuka says: Heci dana dega deva… ‘Vitthala, give me the boon that I shall never forget you! All I ever want is to sing your name with love! I don’t want liberation or wealth—let me always be with the sants! I’m happily accepting then to be reborn again!’
The Varkari tradition is very much alive even today. But a personality like Sant Tukaram has not sprung up since the last 370 years! The abhangs of his disciple Sant Niloba were the last to be integrated in the abhang collection of all the Marathi bhakti-saints. Sant Tukaram remains the last of the great, the pinnacle!