Uday Upadhye: Vitthala Tu Veda Kumbhar
This week's Maitri Tunes is a light-hearted joyful Marathi song from the Varkari tradition of western India which lovingly describes Vitthala, a Vishnu incarnate as a crazy potter eternally at play.
Here is an insightful verse by verse explanation of this song:
On the spinning wheel you give different forms to the clay, Vitthala, you crazy potter.
Madgulkar, the acclaimed poet has illustrated the simile between the potter making pots and God creating different life forms. The spinning wheel can be likened to the cycles of time or yugas.
You bring together the scattered elements of earth, water, fire, air, and create diverse forms in the air. Your creativity is limitless.
Life is made of five elements in the Universe – Earth (bhumi), Water (jala), Fire (agni), Air (Vaayu) and Space (Aakash). The potter mixes all these as he prepares the clay dough and then using his spinning wheel gives a shape, size and capacity to the pot. Here the poet discloses the secret of creation. With these 5 elements, the Universe also nurtures a fetus in the womb very slowly giving a form, shape and breathing life into it. The divine has no restriction for its creation and the evolution that is happening.
Every pot has a different form and shape, with its own unique identity and destiny. Only you (Vitthala) are aware of this and no one else has any idea. Some receive ghee fed into their mouths, while others have coals put into their mouth.
Every pot is of different form and shape and is destined for a particular assignment which the potter alone knows. Some pots are used for drinking water, or storing grains and some even used to intentionally break while performing the last rites of those who passed away. Likewise every life on this earth comes with a specific destiny. Some live with a lot of abundance (like having mouthful of butter) and some have never ending hardships. (like holding burning coal in the mouth).
You are the maker, You are the destroyer, You cuddle us lovingly with compassion. None can understand the very purpose of your actions. You only provide eyes but then create darkness in front of them.
The potter moulds the clay, caresses it and sometimes destroys it. Same way the Creator shapes a life, caresses it and suddenly destroyes it, and we are unable to understand this calculation. Many have tried to explore and discover the truth of life but none have ever come close to it. Only You are aware of the journey called life. You have endowed us with the gift of eyes or vision but did not give us the knowledge of enlightenment. We all are moving in the darkness of ignorance and trying to formulate our own theories and philosophies of life while the truth eludes us till we seek it inside us instead of outside. The poet says that the truth lies inside each individual while we seek it outside with our so called gifted eyes.
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न कळे यातून काय जोडीसी
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Transliteration:
Firtya chakavarti desi maatila aakaar
Vitthala, tu veda kumbhar
Maati, paani, ujed, vaara, tuch misalsi sarva pasara
Aabhalach mag ye aakaara
Tujhya ghatanchya utrandila nase ant naa paar
Ghata ghatanche rup aagale, pratyekache daiv vegle
Tujhyavina te kona na kale
Mukhi kunachya padte loni, kuna mukhi angar
Tuch ghadvisi, tuch fodisi, kurvalisi tu tuch taadisi
Na kale yaatun kaay jodisi
Desi dole pari nirmisi tayapudhe andhar
FEW SONGS FROM THE ARCHIVE
