Bhakti Movement in India and a Great Saint, Tukaram from the Land of Maharashtra

Indian ancient yogis and spiritual masters have laid down various paths for the benefits of mankind to realize God. The main paths advocated by these yogis and sages are mainly Gyan Yoga, Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Bhagwan Krishna, who is believed to be lived around five thousand years ago, in his message through Shrimad Bhagwad Gita has Himself elaborately guided mankind to realize God by following these paths. He also emphasized that one has to choose a path best suited for his temperament and inclination to speed up his divine journey. The Gyan Yoga is the path of knowledge by which the seeker seeks the God by using the power of discrimination, eliminating all which is not God. It says; "Neti, Neti," not this; not that, eliminate, eliminate that is not God. In Karma Yoga, the seeker purifies himself/herself by performing righteous actions and renouncing the fruits thereof. In the path of Bhakti Yoga the seeker continuously thinks of God with deep devotion until one sees Him in everything while performing his other duties. The Bhakti Yoga is also called the path of devotion. The Sanskrit word “Bhakti” comes from the root “bhaj”, which means, to adore or worship God. The Bhakti is pure love for the sake of love and union with the Almighty through love and unalloyed devotion. Bhakti yoga is a path to self-realization and having an experience of oneness with everything. It pronounces, “Soham in Sanskrit, सो ऽहम्, so ham, meaning "I am He, I am That". In today’s material world, the path of Bhaki Yoga has been advocated as the simplest and easiest path to adopt to realize the supreme Lord.

The creator, the God is not visible with naked eyes, though he is the cause behind everything. It is like the presence of butter in the milk. You cannot see the butter in the milk but to get the butter, you have to follow a certain process; you have to churn the milk. Since one does not see the butter, he/she may refuse to believe the presence of butter in the milk, but if one has will to know the truth, he/she has the ability to realize the truth. Similarly, to uncover the mystery behind the universe and to discover the hidden presence of God, you must follow certain process. In Bhakti Yoga, the process is to love God. You may not see Him but His presence is evident in his creation everywhere. The wonders of nature around us; the rising and setting of our sun and moon, the infinite configurations of millions and millions of suns, moons, stars, galaxies and the whole universe mysteriously held in balance, the outer and internal voluntary and involuntary bodily functions of the human beings, animals, birds, plants and every part of the creation show some miraculous and wonderful order amid seemingly disorder.  If you look behind the force governing the creation with the deep sense of devotion, you will land into believing the cause of everything is a force, a power we call it the Almighty, the God.

Bhagwan Krishna has said in Gita that the mankind has to perform his righteous duties well and surrender self to the Almighty with total devotion. If you have done this, you are already on the path of Bhakti Yoga. With total surrender, we must make Him know that we are continuously seeking and longing for Him, wanting Him. He will definitely manifest Himself in His different ways and cannot continue to elude us for long. God's presence is so close; it is just look like that somebody is playing a game of hide-and-seek with us in a dark room. He may be just behind us playing mischief, eluding us some time and showing his presence at  another time but we know that He is definitely there, somewhere and looking for our sincere efforts and devotion to catch hold of Him. He will respond to our questions, queries, clear our doubts in his own ways, may be through some acquaintances or through some unknown wise person meeting us accidently, guiding us on the path and disappearing at the next moment. He will also constantly inspire and guide us through the great yogis and gyanis such as Christ, Krishna, Allah, Guru Nanak and the many other Masters who walked some time on this planet, earth.

The Bhakti movement in India dates back to a period  from 12th and 17th Century. This period saw rise of many saints such as Bhakt Namdev, Saint Dhyaneshwar, Saint Kabir Das, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Saint Tukaram, Jayadeva, Guru Nanak and Saint Tulsidas to name a few. All these saints insisted on the devotional singing and praises of lord in their own ways through their own compositions and teachings. They use to sing in the praise of Lord and produced many great compositions. Kabir innumerable couplets (Dohes) are very famous guiding the mankind even today in finding the right path. Among these, another great saint-poet Tulsidas was a great scholar and worshiper of Lord Rama. His great poem, 'Ramacharitamanasa', popularly called as “Tulsikrita Ramayana” is very popular among the Hindu devotees and is deeply revered as a holy book in every Hindu household today.

Saint Tukaram was one of the great saint poet and a pillar of Bhakti movement  from the land of Maharashtra which has seen many  other saints like Samartha Ramdas, Namdev, Ekanath, Damaji, Chokamela, Akalkot Swami, Gorakumbar and Dgyandev. Saint Tukaram or Tukoba as is popularly known, was born in 1608 A.D. at a village called Dehu in Pune district of Maharashtra. He was a devotee of Vitthala or Vithoba or Panduranga, the Lord Krishna; an avatar of Lord Vishnu.   Tukaram’s family was a Sudra family but was a well to do family belonging to the Kunbi-Morey, tradesman class. The family had accepted Vithoba of Pandharpur (a town in Solapur district of Maharashtra) as the God deity. Since many generations, the family members were ‘Warkaris’ of Pandharpur. Warkaris are the people, the followers of Vithoba who embark on traditional annual pilgrimages on foot singing and dancing and reach to Pandharpur on the eleventh day of the month of Ashadh (June-July) and again on the eleventh day of the month of Kartik (October-November) to worship Vitthala.

It is said that Tukaram suffered many misfortunes in his early life. He used to remain very disturbed and agitated because this. After such an unfortunate event in his life, he left his house for more than two weeks and confined himself in a nearby forest. For fifteen days he stayed there deeply meditating on the Lord Vithoba without any food, water or sleep. After the fifteenth day, he realized his Supreme self and Vithoba appeared in his front in His true form.

Thereafter, Tukaram  began to spend his life more and more in devotional practices, study of the poems and works of Dgyandev, Namdev and Ekanath, gita, Bhagavata, etc. Within few days of his deep dedication and meditation on the Lord, he began to write poems in Marathi which are known as Abhangs. The divine art of composing Bhakti poems came naturally to him like continuous flow of streams, he used to sing these poems and dance unmindfully in total surrender to God. As a result, the people began to flock more and more towards Tukaram to listen the poetries (Abhangs) and merge in devotion to  the Lord Vitthala with him. This congregation of people to listen Abhangs of Tukaram is called Kirtan (Singing Bhajans, the poetries in the praise of Lord). Tukaram drew respect for his devotion and kirtans from one and all.  

This was the period of the king Chhatrapati Shivaji who was greatly impressed by the devotion of saint Tukaram. The king wanted to help him with money and therefore sent his emissary to Tukaram with money and other valuable offerings. The saint refused to take the anything as he felt it does not have any value to him in his service to Lord where only pure devotion is necessary. After coming to know his refusal to accept money, the King Chhatrapati Shivaji went personally to meet Tukaram and sought spiritual and ethical guidance from him.  In Maharashtra, it is said that this was not an ordinary meeting but is termed as a greatest meeting between Bhakti & Shakti (Devotion and Power) engaged in the service of mankind.

Tukaram’s popularity spread among all the classes of society like wild fire. Some people, especially the higher caste Brahmins saw this as a threat to their supremacy. Out of jealousy, they tried to discredit Tukaram. They threatened Tukaram, being of the lower caste for encroaching their domain of performing business of Godly services in society. Their immense pressure forced Tukaram, to throw the bundle of his poems in the river Indrayani which he obeyed without any resistance. However, while doing so he was greatly disappointed as he was merely singing in the praise of Lord on His command only and in his opinion, it cannot be a birth right of few higher caste Brahmins to sing the praise of Lord alone.

After drowning his bundle of poems in the river Indrayani, Tukaram sat on the bank of the river without water, food or sleep in uninterrupted Kirtan and prayer to Vitthala to show him the right path. One day a follower in his dream saw Vitthal who asked him to go the river to get  back his poems back floating on the surface of the river  intact. The man went to the river and brought to the bank the bundle of poems. Tukaram was moved by the great mercy of Lord. Tukaram spent his rest of his life in the service of Lord and the people, composing beautiful Abhangs and performing Kirtans and Bhajans.  He left for Vaikuntha (Heaven)  in the year 1649 when he was forty-one years old singing his following famous abhang. 

आह्मी जातो आपुल्या गावा ।                    I am going to my heavenly abode

आमचा राम राम घ्यावा ॥                       Accept my salutations “Ram Ram”

तुमची आमची हेचि भेटी ।                       This is our last meeting

येथुनियां जन्मतुटी ॥                               From here, we break the bonds of birth

आतां असों द्यावी दया ।                           Have mercy on me

तुमच्या लागतसें पायां ॥                          I touch your feet in reverence

येतां निजधामीं कोणी ।                            While you come to your final abode

विठ्ठल विठ्ठल बोला वाणी ॥                      Speak, always Vitthala, Vitthala

रामकृष्ण मुखी बोला ।                            Speak the name of Lord Ramkrishna

तुका जातो वैकुंठाला ॥                             Tuka is leaving for Vaikuntha

It is believed by some people that Lord Vishnu himself sent His own chariot to take Tukaram to Vaikuntha but some people claim that he disappeared mysteriously.

Among the thousands of Abhangs composed by Saint Tukaram, there is a famous Abhang "Vrikshavalli Amha Soyari Vanchare........in which Tukaram seeks  solitude in the beautiful lap of nature. This abhang is beautifully sung by Indian nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar.

The Abhang in Marathi….

वृक्ष वल्ली आह्मा सोयरी वनचरे । पक्षी ही सुस्वरे आळविती I

येणे सुखे रुचे एकांताचा वास । नाहीं गुण दोष अंगा येत ॥

आकाश मंडप पृथुवी आसन । रमे तेथें मन क्रीडा करी I
येणें सुखें रुचे एकांताचा वास । नाहीं गुण दोष अंगा येत ॥

कंथाकुमंडलु देहउपचारा । जाणवितो वारा अवश्वरु I
येणें सुखें रुचे एकांताचा वास । नाही गुण दोष अंगा येत ॥

हरिकथा भोजन परवडी विस्तार । करोनि प्रकार सेवू रुची I
येणे सुखे रुचे एकांताचा वास । नाही गुण दोष अंगा येत ॥

तुका ह्मणे होय मनासी संवाद । आपुलाची वाद आपणासी I
येणे सुखे रुचे एकांताचा वास । नाही गुण दोष अंगा येत ॥

 The English Translation….

The trees, the creeper and the animals wild

Are our kith and kin in these woods so kind

The birds in the nature sing sweet notes so clear

In this solitude we get the solace of life so dear

Hence we are away from the good or evil impacts

The loneliness is better than the worldly facts

  

The azure is our canopy here

And the earth an only bed so sheer

The mind is free from the painful bonds

To linger in the bliss of this peaceful resort

A blanket and a pitcher are only sufficient here

To protect the body and needs so meager

The light and the merry air is always there

To lift the mind, idle and play in this bare

Thy songs and psalms serve as the food O’ Lord

They increase thy love and quench my hungry heart

Says Tuka, we can have a dialogue

With our own self here

It is always better to have an argument

First with the self O’ dear

Why to fall on the thorns of life

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