The most popular of all the Maharashtrian devotional saints is undoubtedly Sant Tukaram (1608?- 1650).
His songs for Vitthala of Pandharpur so deeply influenced Marathi literature and culture that they literally have become part of Maharashtra’s public memory! There is no home, no village where someone doesn’t memorize at least a couple of Tukoba’s abhangs – many know hundreds by heart! Coming from an ordinary background, showing his full tangible humanness by laying bare his anxieties, sufferings, weaknesses; speaking the simple tongue of the common people, Tukaram is very much a saint the masses can identify with; they regard him as one of themselves!
In a famous abhang –santa kripa jhali–his disciple Bahinabai visualizes this Bhakti- Sampraday, the Varkari-Panth, as a temple built over the last eight centuries with the contributions and blessings of all the sants, culminating in Sant Tukaram as the kalash or pinnacle. Not because he was greater than the other saints in his realizations, but because the teachings of this grand, straight and simple path of bhakti came to full fruition in him. He is the people’s poet – millions of illiterate villagers have been voicing their prayers of love of God through Tukoba’s abhangs, receiving all necessary spiritual instructions through them.
He not only realized God himself, but brought God-realization within the easy reach of all!
‘Jnanoba – Tukaram’ are the two great names chanted by hundreds of thousands of Varkaris during the annual Ashad-pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Sant Jnaneshvar–the foundation, and Sant Tukaram–the pinnacle, contain within them the blessings of all the other bhakti-saints over the centuries.
Life
Sant Tukaram (1608?-1650) was born in Dehu, a small village near Pune, not far away from Alandi, the sanjivan-samadhi of Sant Jnaneshvar. Both towns lie on the banks of the river Indrayani.
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