Ecstasy, the burden lifted
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहु दूरवरी । वेठी ओझें होतें शिरीं ॥1॥
आतां उतरला भार । तुह्मीं केला अंगीकार ॥ध्रु.॥
बहु काकुलती । आलों मागें किती ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । आजि सफळ जाली सेवा ॥3॥
पाईक - अभंग 11
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
For a long time the burden of veth weighed upon my head. I bore that heavy load. Now the burden has been lifted. You have taken me as Your own. Again and again I came before You, pleading. How many times, in the past. Says Tuka, O God, today my service has borne its fruit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
For a long time a forced load weighed on my head. I carried that heavy burden. Now the burden is lifted. You have taken me as Your own. Again and again I came to You, pleading. So many times, in the past. Tuka says: O God, today my service has borne its fruit.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one freed from forced, unpaid labor, the weight that had pressed on his head for so long. Now that load is gone, because God has claimed him as His own. He recalls the long history behind this relief: how many times he came back, pleading, before this day. The poem lands on the moment of harvest: today the long service has finally borne fruit. It is the cry of someone who endured and begged for a long time and has now, at last, been received.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →