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WHEREAS God’s biography is referred to
as ‘nectar supreme’, that of the devotee is called ‘nectar of religion’. Though
the saints related and sang stories of the gods so effectively, it is difficult
for us to narrate tales of the saints themselves; for they are not what they
seem to be and they do not look like what they really are. Besides, as Jnanadev
(1275-1296) aptly puts it in Amrutanubhav, our verbal equipment too has its own
limitations. If we were to ask them: Who art thou? Where have thou come from?
Where art thou going? What is thy name? What is thy form? -- They will
simply reply “Nothing.”
Despite these limitations we have
attempted to present, in brief, the life and work of the great saint-poet,
Tukaram (1609-1650). |
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‘Praise be to village
Dehu, for Lord Vithoba Himself dwells there’
Village Dehu
(‘Dehu Gaon’ in Marathi), near Pune, is considered a blessed place for it was
here that Tukaram was born and performed his divine deeds. Dehu |
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About hundred years before
Tukaram, his ancestor, Vishwambhar, was living at Dehu. The whole family owed
its religious allegiance to Lord Vithoba. The Pandharpur wari (pilgrimage)
during the holy months of Aashadh and Kartik had been a long tradition in the
family of Vishwambhar since his forebears. It was his unwavering and steadfast
devotion that compelled, as it were, the Lord to rush from Pandharpur to Dehu
just as the exemplary devotion of Pundalik had earlier attracted Him over from
Vaikunth to Pandharpur. |
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However, after the demise of
Vishwambhar, his sons, Hari and Mukund, showed no religious inclination and
turned towards their original vocation: the armed services. They sought royal
patronage along with their families and became officers of the royal army of
that time. Their mother, Amabai, frowned upon this. The Lord was also displeased
with their decision. He once appeared in Amabai’s dream and told her of His
unhappiness over the state of affairs. ‘I left Pandharpur and came to Dehu for
you, but you chose to leave me and seek royal patronage. This is not fair. You
should return to Dehu,’ He said. Amabai spoke to her sons about the Lord’s
admonition and tried to persuade them to return to Dehu. The sons, however, paid
no heed.
As fate would have it,
the state was soon invaded by an alien power and both the brothers laid down
their lives in the ensuing battle with the foe. Mukund’s wife preferred to go
sati following her husband’s demise. Hari’s wife was pregnant at the time of his
death on the battlefield. Therefore, Amabai returned to Dehu with her. Soon the
daughter-in-law was sent to her parents for delivery and Amabai devoted herself
to the Lord’s service. Hari’s widow gave birth to a son, who was named Vitthal.
Vitthal’s son was Padaji, Padaji’s son Shankar, Shankar’s son Kanhoba and
Kanhoba’s son was Bolhoba. Bolhoba had three sons: Savji was the eldest,
followed by Tukaram and Kanhoba, the youngest.
The family in which
Tukaram was born was indeed a very pious one.
‘Venerable are the families
and venerable the land in which God’s disciples are born.’
Tukaram’s family
belonged to the Kshatriya (warrior) caste. His forefathers had embraced
martyrdom while fighting the enemy on the battlefield. The family was also very
cultured and religious. Worship of Lord Vithoba had been its hallmark for
generations together and so was the annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur. The family
also had the distinction of being mahajans (money-lenders). It owned farmland
engaged in money-lending and trade. The family owned two wadas (houses) at Dehu:
one for residence and the other, in the marketplace, for trade and business. It
enjoyed the respect of the villagers and also of those living in the immediate
environs. They were called kunbis (farming community), because they engaged in
agriculture and vanis (trading community) because of trading. However, Tukaram
abjured all these, because of which he came to called gosavi (someone like a
fakir). Nevertheless, ‘Gosavi’ was never the surname of the family. It was
‘More’ and ‘Gosavi’ was an honorific.
The vaishya
(trader) community had come to be included among the shudras (the lowest in the
social scale) about the time of the Bhagawad-geeta and during Jnanadev’s time,
the Kshatriyas were also being counted among the shudras. Only two castes
(Varna) had remained: the Brahmins and the shudras. Thus Tukaram also came to be
called a shudra. |
