Quote by Tukaram: “God lives in the heart of every being; look there first.”

Don't look for the sacred in temples, rituals, or priests before you look within and within others. This is the bhakti insistence that divine presence is immediate and universal — available to anyone, regardless of caste or learning — because it is already inside every living being.

Tukaram composed during the Mughal period in Maharashtra, when the Varkari movement offered a path to spiritual equality outside the caste hierarchy. His abhangas were composed in vernacular Marathi and sang at pilgrimages to Pandharpur, making them accessible to ordinary people. He faced active persecution from upper-caste authorities who considered his challenge to priestly exclusivity a threat to social order.

Seventeenth-century Marathi poet-saint and one of the most beloved figures in the Varkari devotional tradition of Maharashtra. Born in Dehu village near Pune into a lower-caste family, his devotional songs known as abhangas challenged caste hierarchy and priestly mediation of the divine. His works were threatened with destruction by Brahmin authorities, but his legacy endures as foundational to Marathi culture and literature.