Experience, casting off the body
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ठकिलें काळा मारिली दडी । दिली कुडी टाकोनियां ॥1॥
पांघुरलों बहु काळें । घोंगडें बळें सांडवलें ॥ध्रु.॥
नये ऐसा लाग वरी । परते दुरी लपालें ॥2 ॥
तुका ह्मणे आड सेवा । लाविला हेवा धांदली ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have tricked Kala himself and gone into hiding, casting off this body. For long ages I wore that coarse blanket, but it has been shed by force. It would pursue me still, but I have hidden far beyond its reach. Says Tuka, envy and its commotion had blocked my service to the Lord.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I tricked Kala himself and slipped into hiding. I threw off this body and gave it away. For long ages I wore that coarse blanket; now it has been shed by force. It would chase me still, but I have hidden far beyond its reach. Tuka says: envy and its commotion had blocked my service to the Lord.
What it means
Tukaram speaks of escaping death by ceasing to be the body. Kala, Time and death, can only seize what wears the flesh; by casting off the body he calls his own, he slips out of death's grasp. The coarse blanket he wore for ages is that body and the long habit of identifying with it, now stripped away by force rather than by his choosing. Death would still pursue him, but he has hidden somewhere it cannot follow. He ends by naming what had kept him from God: envy and its noisy disturbance had been blocking his service all along.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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