Abhanga 4154
Behind everything you see is a deeper seer within you; turn your attention there and rest in that quiet awareness.
The verse
हातपाय मिळोनि मेळा । चला म्हणती पाहों डोळां ॥१॥
देखणी नव्हे देखती कैसे । सकळांचा देखणा डोळा चि असे ॥२॥
डोऑयाचा डोळा पाहों गेला । तुका म्हणे तो पाहों ठेला ॥३॥
Literal translation
Hātapāya miḷōni meḷā — chalā mhaṇatī pāhōm ḍōḷām — hands-feet gathered as assembly — they say come let-us-see with eye. Dekhaṇī navhe dekhatī kaise — sakaḷāñcā dekhaṇā ḍōḷā chi ase — the visible is not the seer-how — for all the seer is the eye itself. Ḍōḷyāchā ḍōḷā pāhōm gelā — Tukā mhaṇe to pāhōm ṭhelā — the eye-of-the-eye went to see — Tukā says: that-one stayed-(absorbed)-in-seeing.
What it means
A 3-verse vedānta-mystical image. The-body's-parts-assemble-to-see; but-the-visible-is-not-the-seer; the-eye-is-the-seer; the-eye-of-the-eye (sākṣī, witness-of-the-witness) went-to-see — and-stayed-absorbed-in-seeing. The recursive image points to the drk (seer) behind all drśya (seen) — a classical Upaniṣadic netrasya netra (eye-of-the-eye) figure.
For someone today
Tukaram points to something subtle here: your hands and feet and all the parts of your body gather together and say, come, let's go see with the eye, but the things you see are not the same as the one who is truly seeing. Behind the physical eye, he says, is a deeper seer, the eye of the eye, the quiet awareness that watches even your watching. When attention turns to that inner witness, it finds itself simply absorbed in seeing, fully at rest there. It is an invitation to stop identifying only with what you experience, and notice instead the awareness that is experiencing it.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे एक सूक्ष्म गोष्ट सांगतात: तुमचे हातपाय आणि शरीराचे सर्व अवयव एकत्र येऊन म्हणतात, चला डोळ्यांनी पाहूया, पण जे दिसते ते खरा पाहणारा नसतो. डोळ्यामागे एक अधिक खोल पाहणारा असतो, डोळ्याचा डोळा, जी शांत जाणीव तुमच्या पाहण्यालाही पाहत असते. लक्ष त्या आंतरिक साक्षीकडे वळवले की ते फक्त पाहण्यातच पूर्णपणे लीन झालेले आढळते. ही एक आठवण आहे की आपण जे अनुभवतो तेवढेच आपण नाही, तर ते अनुभवणारी जाणीव हीच खरी आपली ओळख आहे.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's eye-of-the-eye / sākṣī mystical-vedānta image
- Companion to 2837 (brahmāṇḍa-Paṇḍharī mystical-radiance)