संत साहित्य
Work in progress. Translations and commentary are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies or hallucinations — please use your own judgement and check against the original sources.
संत साहित्य · Themes

Practice & Seeking

What the five voices say — 261 passages.

Tukārām

  • Abhanga 2377 — English: Gentle, sweet bāla-rūpa — that form from Kāḷī-time.
  • Abhanga 2467
  • Abhanga 3743 — Tukārām's Name-is-everything summary. This very (is) my tapa; this very (is) my dāna; this very (is the) anuṣṭ
  • Abhanga 3049 — Netra jhākōnīyām kāya japatōsī — what's the use of closing eyes and doing japa; jamva nāhī mānasīm bhāva-prema
  • Abhanga 3078 — Brahmayāñce veda Śankhāsure nele — the Brahma's Vedas were taken by Śankhāsura; tyāsāṭīm dharile matsya-rūpa —
  • Abhanga 3080 — Tukārām's Vārāha meditation. When Hiraṇyākṣa, the daitya, became uncontrolled — strong with Śankara's vara; (h
  • Abhanga 3081 — Tukārām's Narasimha-meditation. For Prahlāda (you) became Narasimha; (you) made his words true. Rāma Krṣṇa Gov
  • Abhanga 3901 — Tukā mhaṇe signature, no sukha in vain talk no kaṣṭa in meditating Paṇḍharināth, uttering Hari no sari pāḍa t
  • Abhanga 4136 — Tukā mhaṇe signature, don't want Vaikuṇṭha — sāyujya paṭa not needed, give Name sarva kāḷa — only this māgaṇa
  • Abhanga 4388 — Paṇḍharī-purified-mana — meditate-Viṭhōba.
  • Abhanga 1 — Attention rests where it wants to. The whole spiritual life turns on what you ask it to settle on.
  • Abhanga 2 — When the mind has too many images, give it one to come home to.
  • Abhanga 3 — Ask for love itself, not for the benefits of love. The benefits look small once love is present; the absence o
  • Abhanga 4 — Beauty seen and not yet possessed is the position devotion is built from. The longing is not the obstacle; it
  • Abhanga 9 — English: This abhang is the verse for the moment after a real life-direction choice. Most spiritual writing is
  • Abhanga 14 — The economy is plain: brief intense suffering once, in exchange for unfailing rest forever. The alternative —
  • Abhanga 16 — English: We will enjoy all happiness at all times; we have cut the net of attachment-bonds.
  • Abhanga 17 — English: This abhang is for the moment when something you've been working toward, waiting for, or growing into
  • Abhanga 18 — Long love does not stay earnest. It moves into play — laughter, mock-anger, joking. The play is not a dilution
  • Abhanga 19 — Real paths are not democratic. The honest thing — sometimes the loving thing — is to tell people who would com
  • Abhanga 22 — After a long innocent stretch, things become uncontainable. The discipline shifts from holding-back to letting
  • Abhanga 25 — If you would enjoy the supreme love, the price is plain — head off, house on fire, fly straight to the lamp. D
  • Abhanga 27 — There is no shortcut. The work that looks dramatic from the outside is built by years of unsexy, unwitnessed p
  • Abhanga 33 — English: This abhang is for the moment when private practice has stopped working and you can feel something ha
  • Abhanga 38 — English: This abhang is for the moment when the practice you've been attempting feels too hard — too elaborate

…and 149 more in search.

Dāsabodha

  • Dashak 1 · Samāsa 9 — Now I praise paramārtha (ultimate truth), which is the very self-interest (nija-svārtha) of the seeker (sādhak
  • Dashak 7 · Samāsa 3 — Śrīrāma. Listeners, be attentive; now I tell brahma-jñāna; by which composure happens — for seekers.
  • Dashak 13 · Samāsa 6 — What are called the five tattvas — their names, for practice; / thereafter by svānubhava — should be known in
  • Dashak 14 · Samāsa 6 — Beauty cannot be practiced into; no remedy works for inherent guṇa. / Some way should be held — of acquired gu

Jñāneśvarī

…and 53 more in search.

Aṣṭāvakra

Guru Charitra

Teachings

  • Work as Practice — There is a persistent rumor that the spiritual life begins where the working life ends — that the serious seek