Maya:

literally, 1. a phantom image, an illusion, an apparition, a hallucination, an appearance, a dream, an unreality. 2. deceit, fraud, trick etc. 3. in Vedantic philosophy it is the mistaking of an ephemeral world for the Absoloute Being that is the true form of the immutable Supreme Spirit; in Samkhya philosophy, it is "nature" or the original source of the material world, consisting of the three elemental properties-sattva, raja, and lama; 4. compassion, pity, mercy, kindness; However, the word "maya" is related to the word "ma" which means, variously "to measure" "to limit" "to compare" "to be in", "to find room in", "to be contained in": it can thus be related to "mother" and "womb" and by extension to "the world that contains us", "the space in which we are", "the dimensions that contain and confine us"; Tukaram is much more subtle and sophisticated than meets the eye because his sub-texts range from the Bhagawadgeeta to various philosophies current in India; he uses a simple, everyday language only occasionally using words like "maya" with their full charge of multiple significance. In one poem, he has used the colloquial Marathi word "mav" meaning "maya" in the sense of both "compassion" and "conjuror's trick", both "nature" and "the unreal world mistaken for Absolute Being": he deliberately uses the tensions between conflicting significance to create deliberate reversals of meaning or to produce, from one set of words, fully separated diverse images.

Moksha:

final liberation or salvation or emanicipation from the cycle of karma, the wheel of death and suffering, or from a confined sense of self/individuality/ego; freedom from desire,attachment, memory, hope, anxiety, anguish and boredom which comprise the experience of this-worldly life.

Namdeo:

(1270-1350) one of the "Great Quartet" of "The Poets ofVithoba" (see Jnanadev, Eknath); one of the greatest poets in the Marathi language; author of a large body of lyrical, narrative, descriptive,autobiographical, didactic, incantatory, and ode-like abhangs; Namdeo had made an impulsive pledge, according to one of his own poems, that he would write one billion poems in praise of Vitthal, just like the monumental epic that Valmiki had written; Namdeo informs us that Vitthal himself tried to dissuade him from this unrealistic pledge pointing out that in the present age, human life was too short for a poet to be able to write one billion poems; in Tukaram's dream of initiation into poetry, Namdeo made a reference to this pledge and ~sked Tukaram to "write those I've left unwritten from the one:billion I pledged"; there is gentle humour and irony in this aspect of an otherwise revelatory and solemn dream when we remember the context of Namdeo's original poem about his pledge and Vitthal's wry remark about the brevity of human life; a later poet, Niloba, who regarded Tukaram as his guru, thought that Tukaram was an avatara of Namdeo; indeed, there is a striking resemblance between some of the poetry of Namdeo and Tukaram, though Tukaram is distinguished by his horror of the human condition, personal anguish and will to transcend even Bhakti to achieve absolute enlightenment.

Name, the:

sometimes, this word has been treated as a proper noun because it refers specifically to one or more of the personal names by which the Bhakta knows, remembers, worships, and evokes his God; in the case of Tukaram this does not only refer to the name/s of Vitthal/Vishnu/ Krishna but also to the mantra (or device for meditative, inner recitation) given by Babaji, his guru: "Rama Krishna Hari", which again are names of Vishnu; the V arkaris sing, chant, or mentally recite by rote the various names of Vitthal Vishnu; "JaiJai Rama Krishna Hari" has now become a slogan for them to raise at bhajans and keertans; most poet-saints have a sequence of poems that describe the power of "the Name"; each "name" is the evocation of a specific image of the deity since each name has its special aspect, allusion, association, mythical or legendary context; the poetry of proper nouns is inevitably lost in translation like the poetry of any culture-specific nouns-whether proper, common, personal, pronouns, or collective nouns; in folk, bardic and women's poetry this loss is crucial; Tukaram's poetry has roots in all three.

Narayana:

another name for Vishnu that means "son of man" or "son of the waters"; Tukaram uses this as another name for Vitthal; in the poems that refer to the ordeal-by-water to which Tukaram's notebooks were subjected, the radical, literal meaning assumes special significance; Vishnu or Narayana resides in the depths of a primordial ocean, stretched on his couch, the serpent of infinity; Narayana is thus one who resides in water; and it was from water that Tukaram's poems were returned undamaged after thirteen days.

Pandharpur:

Pandharpur lies to the south-east of Bombay, about 480 kilometers away,on the Deccan plateau; the river Bheema, which at this point is given the poetic name "Chandrabhaga" or "crescent moon", flows through the sacred city housing the premier shrine ofVitthal; it is an ancient settlement on a busy junction of old trade routes passing through a river valley; for the last seven hundred years Varkari pilgrims have been gathering here twice every year to attend the festival of Vitthal; the Varkaris believe that Vitthal is the form in which Vishnu himself landed on the Earth to visit his great devotee, Pundalik, and has been standing since on the "the Brick" on which Pundalik asked him "to wait for a while"; the cult of Vithoba or Vitthal is thus centred in Pandharpur as its sacred geographical nucleus; a Maharashtra-wide network of pilgrim routes meets at this centre; Pandharpur is also the city where the poet-saints and devotees of Vithoba gave a shape to the Marathi language and its literary culture by assimilating the dialects of various pilgrims and disseminated a sense of equality, brotherhood, and spiritual community; Tukaram has several poems about Pandharpur and its sacred importance; he also addresses Vitthal quite often as the "Lord of Pandharpur"; Tukaram has stressed the importance of the pilgrimage and the Varkari way of life; but it is not clear whether Tukaram regularly visited Pandharpur himself; he has an epistolatory poem to Vitthal "sent" with Varkari pilgrims; in another poem he describes himself as waiting anxiously for news from Pandharpur and news about Vitthal's welfare; Varkaris symbolically carry the "spirit of Tukaram" from Dehu to Pandharpur on their regular pilgrimage; this custom is followed till this day; all their beloved saints from Jnanadev to Tukaram are believed to be present in spirit at every festival in Pandharpur; traditions of the poetry of the saints are maintained in an oral form and as performed songs through the living medium of the pilgrimage and the festival in which it culminates.

Pandurang:

another name for Vitthal, used for the first time in the thirteenth century according to Deleury.

Pundalik:

also "Pundarika" and "Paundarika". See "Brick, the".

Puranas:

medieval compilations of myths concerning various deities of the Hindu pantheon; they are regarded as part of the scriptures.

Rebirth:

also "reincarnation"; traditional Hindu belief that man is successively born and dies until his individual spiritual evolution is complete; see karma.

Rukmini:

Krishna's principal wife; Tukaram considers her synonymous with Vitthal's wife, Rakhuma, also referring to her as Rakhumai (Mother Rakhuma), Rakhumadevi (Goddess Rakhuma), Rakhumabai (Lady Rakhuma) etc., Vitthal-Rakhuma, Krishna-Rukmini, and Lakshmi- Vishnu are synonymous couples and are often iconographically shown together or close to each other.

Santaji TeliJagnade:

a devoted companion of Tukaram; his notebooks contain the only contemporary copies of some of Tukaram's work.

Tukaram:

"Tuka" is the dimunitive as well as abbreviated form of the full name "Tukaram"; Tukaram's family name is "More", a Maratha clan-name; his father's name was Bolhoba and mother's Kanakai; Tukaram describes himself as a Shudra kunbi or a non-caste peasant. The name Tukaram is somewhat obscure; there is a goddess named Tukai, sometimes the name is used for the Goddess Arnba at Tuljapur in Maharashtra; it is clear that this word is "Tuka plus aai" and "aai" means mother in Marathi; but Tuka remains unexplained; however, there is the Marathi noun "tuk" which means importance; weighing; measuring; sizing up; balancing; weighing in a balance; the verb "tukane" has similar meanings; it also means to be equal to something in weight, size, or importance and also to appreciate, to assess, to evaluate; or to balance, equalize, to make symmetrical, to make poised, to counterbalance; and it also means to reflect, to consider, to reconcile, to square up; finally, it means to nod, to give assent to, to acquiesce etc. "Rama" of course is the name of an avatara of Vishnu. Tukaram has used the abstract noun "tuk" as well as the verb "tukane" in various places in the proximity of his signature-line, "Says Tuka"; one line goes as follows: "Tuka tuki tukala"; there are several puns in these three words; Tuka' the proper noun, is the subject, followed by the locative form of the same noun used as the object, and lastly the verb "tukane" used in the simple past tense, third person singular; read in the context of the above meanings, the line becomes a translator's nightmare.

Tulsi:

the sweet basil or the black basil, a plant sacred to Vitthal and to Vishnu; all Vaishnavs (devotees of Vishnu or children of Vishnu) worship the plant itself; it is grown in the courtyard of their houses in a little squarish-shaped clay-tower or pot called vrindavan; Vitthal and Vishnu both are supposed to wear a necklace or a rosary-like garland of luisi-wood beads; the images of Vitthal and Vishnu are offered luisi-leaves during the performance of rites of worship; a Varkari wears a luisi-bead necklace or rosary when he takes his initial vow; and whenever he goes on a pilgrimage to Pandharpur he wears it; some of them wear it all the time.