This day, Sant Tukaram met and was initiated by his guru (Maagh Shukla Paksha Dashami)

Ramkrishnahari.

Even the greatest of souls who strode this earth have stressed the need to have a preceptor.  Incarnations of the lord such as Sri Rama and Sri Krishna too have shown us the way that we are complete only if we have had a bonafide guru.  Without a guru even towering achievements are of no avail.  ‘Sant Tukaram’ is addressed by one and all as ‘Jagadguru’.  His being a guru to this whole world is timeless.  He will continue to be our guru for eons to come ; in fact as long as this creation exists.  Such a ‘Mahapurusha’ got his initiation on this day i.e. today : Maagh Shuddha Dashami (Shukla Paksha Dashami of the ‘Maagh’ month).  It is pertinent that we enjoy the ‘artha’ of the whole abhang, in a departure from having the bhaavartha of only one charan from an abhang.

सत्य गुरुरायें कृपा मज केली  |  परि नाहीं घडली सेवा काहीं १

My ‘sadguru’ bestowed on me limitless grace.  But I did not conduct any service to him.  This has to be the mindset of any ‘sishya’.  If whatever we do is to be mathematically equated to ‘’n” which is infinity  (which is what all of boast about ourselves), then remember that what the ‘guru’ does is always “n + 1”.  At no point of time can we ever claim that we have served him or been devoted to him in a measure that can equate to what grace he bestowed on us.  ‘Tuka’ genuinely laments that ‘I have been able to do nothing as service to him’.  If we ponder over this a little, we will realise that remaining genuinely insufficient in our efforts is what is the right state.  We should stretch ourselves to our limits and yet remain short of his grace.  That is what is most fair and that is what will keep elevating us higher and higher.  It is a sweet tussle between our bhakti to him and his grace on us.

सांपडविले वाटे जातां गंगा स्नाना |  मस्तकीं तो जाणा ठेविला कर २

I was on my way to having ‘ganga snaan’ (referring to ‘tuka’ proceeding to have this routine bath in the river ‘Indrayani’).  He intercepted me on the way.  ‘Tuka’ here says ‘Saapadavile’ which directly indicates that this ‘guru’ was searching for ‘Tuka’ in that vicinity and caught him when he was proceeding for this bath.  The ‘guru’ came in search of his ‘sishya’.  This is indeed always the truth for every spiritual aspirant.  Where do we possess the capability to search our guru ?  It is the ‘guru’ who picks us out of this swarm of humanity.  For this act of fishing us out, there is absolutely nothing that we can do unto him ; nothing in return ; except only place our gratitude in his lotus feet.  The reason for this is that he is ‘Poorna’ and we are not so.  There is nothing that is deficient with him and there is nothing that is to be done by us.  What can an ‘Apoorna’ give to a ‘Poorna’ ?  But this does not take away the fact that we have to indeed do service to him !  The reason is that, service is the watering of the seed that he has planted in our hearts.  While our service seems like being delivered unto the ‘guru’, in effect, he is using it not for himself but to rather nourish us like a gardener who uses the leaves and twigs that the plants give him only to put it back as manure for the same tree.  

My ‘guru’ then placed his hands on my head – a ‘hasta deeksha’.  All that was actually happening in a dream to ‘Tuka’.  He was actually already receiving a ‘swapna deeksha’.  And within this ‘swapna deeksha’, now he was experiencing ‘hasta deeksha’.  What a condition ‘tuka’ would have been is unimaginable.  He must have been a spiritual stupor if one could use the term.  One look of the guru into our eyes itself is enough to paralyse our senses.  What to say then if he places his hand on us.  ‘Hasta deeksha’ is what he gives and ‘sparsha deeksha’ is what we receive.  Such a ‘deeksha’ from the guru always sends down a current of a few mega watts into our body.  One momentarily loses ones identity ; one instantly forgets what he is doing, where he is and what did he come there for.  Everything comes a ‘naught’.  It is a few seconds of bliss but an eternity of an experience.  ‘Tuka’ would have similarly blanked out.

भोजन मागती तूप पावशेर  |  पडिला विसर स्वप्नामाजीं ३

With 3 ‘deekshas’ already in place, the next ‘deeksha’ flowed ‘Shabda deeksha’.  The guru spoke a few words pouring from his lotus lips in a voice whose soothing, sweet & silky flow fell into ‘tuka’s’ ears.  He said ‘Give me ‘paav sher’ (a measure) of ghee for my meal’.  What a dignified process !!!  It we who should come up and give him something but with a hasta & sparsha deeksha, ‘tuka’ is already dumb founded.  The guru therefore helps us to do a service by asking for it himself.  Is this not love personified ?  But ‘tuka’ states ‘Padilaa visara swapnaamaajee’ (whatever he asked from me, I immediately forgot it then and there in that dream)’.  So genuinely true ! The ‘guru’ prempted him to do a service but ‘tuka’s’ complete being was choked.  Even his thinking and faculty of responses were completely choked.  That is the state one reaches when in front of the guru face to face and be a recipient to an outpour of such blessings. ‘Tuka’ could just not react because every thought that came to his mind was sliding away into nothingness.  What his ‘guru’ asked also met with the same fate. Can ‘Tuka’ be blamed for this?

काय कळें उपजला अंतराय |  म्हणोनिया काय त्वरा झाली ४

But he blames himself.  Let all of us however realise that all this blaming came only when he regained his composure.  Until the composure is gained, everything ceases to exists.  Nevertheless, this realisation is now literally killing him. He says ‘kaaya kale upajalaa antaraay’  

- What is it that was the obstacle that made me forget it?  Fie on me!  ‘Mhanoniyaa kaaya tvaraa jhaalee’ – it is because of that obstacle that I forget.

In such a divine & subtle experience, can there be an obstacle?  Ideally, there cannot be at all.  The obstacle then which Tuka senses is none but the ‘guru’ himself.  But why would the ‘guru’ ask for something and also become an obstacle to it? The ‘rahasya’ is that this obstacle leading into a repentance becomes a seed laid for the next meeting with the guru. This creates those sweet pangs to get to him once again. 

राघव चैतन्य केशव चैतन्य |  सांगितली खूण मालिकेची ५

While ‘Tuka’ was the receiving end of the swapna – hasta – sparsha and shabda deeksha, the next wave followed.  It was the ‘parampara deeksha’.  The guru related (Saangtalee khoona) to ‘tuka’ that he comes from the lineage (Maalikechi) of the greats ‘Raghava Chaitanya’ and ‘Keshava Chaitanya’, thereby clearly indicating that he is now going to absorb ‘tuka’ into this lineage of grandeur.  From our limited senses, we cannot even comprehend how ‘Tuka’ could withstand this spiritual onslaught.

बाबाजी आपुलें सांगितलें नाम |  मंत्र दिला रामकृष्णहरि ६

Did ‘Tuka’ already know him before ?  Does not seem to be because ‘Tuka’ says, this guru revealed his name as ‘Babaji’.  And while all these details were getting inscripted in Tuka’s’ heart, the next ‘deeksha’ followed – ‘Mantra Deeksha’.  ‘Babaji’ initiated ‘Tuka’ with the mantra ‘Rama Krishna Hari’.  Did ‘Tuka’ not already know thse naamaas ?  Undoubted yes !  Here is where all of us need to understand the difference between ‘knowing’ and ‘getting initiated’.  When you get initiated, the guru does not just utter some words into your ear.  He passes on his ‘tapas’ to us.  That is the magnitude of what the ‘guru’ does for all those whom he initiates.  

माहो शुध्द दशमी पाहुनि गुरुवार |  केला अंगीकार तुका म्हणे ७

‘Tuka’ says, this happened on a ‘maagh shuddha dashami’ day which also happens to be a ‘Thursday’ (10th Jan 1633 as per english calender mentioned in a research book).  The guru conferred on him all these deekshaas and finally literally gobbled him up (kela angeekaara).  The joy of getting consumed by your guru cannot be written down in words.  It is something that has to be savoured and experienced.

May we all be drenched, drowned and consumed by this pinnacle of grace !!!

Ramkrishnahari.

सत्य गुरुरायें कृपा मज केली    |  परि नाहीं घडली सेवा काहीं १

सांपडविले वाटे जातां गंगा स्नाना  |  मस्तकीं तो जाणा ठेविला कर २

भोजन मागती तूप पावशेर    |  पडिला विसर स्वप्नामाजीं ३

काय कळें उपजला अंतराय    |  म्हणोनिया काय त्वरा झाली ४

राघव चैतन्य केशव चैतन्य    |  सांगितली खूण मालिकेची ५

बाबाजी आपुलें सांगितलें नाम    |  मंत्र दिला रामकृष्णहरि ६

माहो शुध्द दशमी पाहुनि गुरुवार |  केला अंगीकार तुका म्हणे ७