Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature the Saint Tukaram, a reminder on gurus, and an aesthetic!
Person Highlight: Tukaram
Tukaram (1608-1649) was a famous Hindu saint and poet from Maharashtra, and our person feature for the week!
Born in 1608CE near Pune into a family from the Moray tradesman caste, his family were members of the Varkari moment, a bhakti oriented subsect of Hinduism dedicated to the God Vitthala, a form of Lord Vishnu. He had a pristine childhood, learning to read and write (a rarity in those days) and his family was relatively well off, but his teenage years were turbulent. He got married at a young age, his father passed away suddenly, and his brother, overwhelmed by grief, left the family to become a traveling monk. Then, as Tukaram became the family head, Maharashtra was racked by back to back famines, putting him into debt and extreme stress. In the same time, his mother and eldest son died. This all occurred by the young age of 21, an insane amount of life to live and grief to process.
He then began taking trips to hills near his house to ponder the world. One day, he had a dream that would change his life. In the dream, a sadguru or enlightened teacher gave him the mantra “Rama Krishna Hari”. Repetition of this mantra helped him get his life back on track, and inspired him to start by restoring a Vitthala temple on one of his properties. From there he began to host kirtans and develop a following as a religious leader. One of his more famous pieces is listed below:
In his preachings, he drew major influence from: Namdev, Dnyaneshwar, Kabir and Eknath. One core tenet of his worldview was the importance of saguna bhakti, that is devotion to a deity whose forms are articulated. He believed that saying mantras that captured the qualities of a deity would help folks attain liberation. He also believed that piety was more important than caste status, and stressed that piety and religiosity provided people of all backgrounds the tools to attain moksha.
After years of preaching, he even drew the attention of the Maratha King Shivaji Maharaj, who came to him saying that he too wanted to renounce his Kingdom and live in the forest. Tukaram chided him, reminding him that a King’s duty is to his subjects, and telling Shivaji Maharaj
“In order to realise God, it is not necessary to give up food or water and go to a forest. If the worldly pleasures come to you of themselves, enjoy them by all means, but only in the name of God who dwells in all of us. Do not desire anything and do not give up anything. This is my simple and only advice to you”
He was also a prolific writer; there are over 4,000 poems to his name, many of which were abhangs (devotional pieces dedicated to Lord Vitthala, generally in the Marathi language). For more information on his life, check out the links below:
https://www.siddhayoga.org/poetry-of-saints/tukaram-maharaj/life-and-sadhana
https://www.sivanandaonline.org/?cmd=displaysection§ion_id=1643
A performance of one of his abhangs is provided below:
Meme Highlight: Following Actual Gurus
We support learning about Hinduism from gurus that properly uphold what is written in Hindu texts and belong to sampradaya of repute. We don’t support “new age” crap and psychobabble.
Aesthetic: Karnataka Temple
