Why is Tukaram Maharaj especially glorified among various Maharashtrian saints in ISKCON?

From: Puri Ashishkumar

(Transcript by Thejus Prabhu)

Answer: That is because His example and teachings are quite ambiguously pure devotional and He also had a connection with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So many of the other Maharashtrian Saints, there were also very exalted spiritually but the way there teachings are available to us now are often having a significant impersonalist sort of import, mayavadi sort of import that can often come from the marati scholars who have translated this there marati of the several centuries ago into present marati or it may come from themselves directly, we don’t know. So because we cannot be sure about the exact philosophical conceptions whether they are personalist or impersonalist of all the various saints that are there in Maharashtra. That’s why no explicit reference to them is made but because there is striking parallels between the teachings from Tukaram Maharaj and as they have given in the Srimad Bhagavatam as explained by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. That’s why he is most often referred to. His Grace Vrindavan prabhu, a devotee scholar has written a book commenting on the parallels between Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings and Tukaram Maharaj’s teachings and that reveals how striking the parallels are. So that’s why because the parallels are significant because the teachings are quite ambiguously devotional and non impersonal and that’s why the focus is on Tukaram Maharaj.

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