PHILOSOPHY OF SANT TUKARAM

WHY IN THE NEWS ?

Recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Sant Tukaram Shila Temple or Rock temple in the village “Dehu” near Pune, Maharashtra.

STORY BEHIND THE ROCK TEMPLE

• Tukaram taught about “Abangas” among all classes of society irrespective of caste. This made dominant classes like Brahmins question Sant Tukaram.
• They challenged him to immerse his teachings and literary works “Abhangas” into the Indrayani River to prove his divinity.
• Tukaram sat on the rock near the river where his works reappeared after 13 days.
• This rock is considered pious and a Shila Mandir was built on this rock.

SANT TUKARAM

• Tukaram was a 17 th century Bhakti Saint from Dehu village, Maharashtra.
• He belongs to Bhakti Parambara which started with Adi Shankaracharya and is then revived by Ramanujacharya.
• Tukaram belonged to “Warkari Sampradaya”, a Mahratta Vaishnava tradition where people worship Vishnu in different forms called Vidhobha, Vithala, and Panduranga.
• Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was the Guru of Tukaram. Apart from him, Tukaram was influenced by Namdev, Jnaneshwar, Kabir, and Eknath.
• Tukaram was the contemporary of Chatrapati Shivaji, who sent gifts that were rejected by Tukaram in the spirit of renunciation.
• Sant Tukaram was called Tuka or Tukoba, and he was also known as the “Saint of the masses”.
• The teachings of Tukaram are simple, straight, and grand which attracted the masses to learn his teachings by themselves.

LITERARY WORKS OF TUKARAM

1. Abhangas: Abhangas means indestructible and non-ending. He wrote around 5000 Abhangas, devotional poetry in the Marathi genre of literature.
2. Kirtans: Kirtans were derived mostly from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is community-oriented spiritual worship through songs and dances and it is one of the prominent forms of the Bhakti Movement.

EVENTS IN TUKARAM’S LIFE

1. Search of truth: Tukaram spent 15 days on Bhamnath mountain like a wanderer in search of truth.
2. Authenticity of Vedas: Being a sudra himself, Tukaram taught true knowledge of Vedas to everyone in the society irrespective of any discrimination. He upheld– “Everyone is same before the God”.

 PHILOSOPHY OF SANT TUKARAM

1. Bhakti Marg: He advocated renouncing rituals and sacrifices and maintaining direct relation with God. He completely disregarded conventional ritual practices and the role of intermediary between God and worshippers. Moreover, surrendering to God is the mantra for a peaceful life.
2. Vedantic philosophy: Entire Bhakti has its root in Vedas and Upanishads which basically focus on the doctrine of “identify the self-first”.
3. Great virtues: Tukaram upheld the importance of virtues in one’s life such as truth, humility, humbleness, and compassion. He quoted- “when a river is flooding, mighty trees will wash away, but little grass will stay like that”-meaning virtues stay forever, whatever the circumstances are.
4. Social Reforms: Tukaram advocated “equality” irrespective of prevailing caste discrimination, gender discrimination, and economic discrimination at that time. Society during his period was completely devoid of knowledge in devotion. Tukaram advocated maintaining continuous relations with God.
5. Pilgrimage: Pilgrimage constitutes part and parcel of the Bhakti movement. He took pilgrimage from Dehu to Panduranga temple annually which was called “Wari”.

CONCLUSION

Tukaram was a person who stood for caste and gender justice. His prominent works such as “Abhangas” are universally accepted. His ideologies have a long-lasting impact on Indian society, even Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by the teachings of Sant Tukaram.