The Name above all caste
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हांसत खेलत चालत बाट । खाणा खाते सोते खाट ॥1॥
जातनसुं मुजे कछु नहिं प्यार । असते की नही हेंदु धेड चंभार ॥2॥
ज्याका चित लगा मेरे रामको नाव । कहे तुका मेरा चित लगा त्याके पाव ॥3॥
आपे तरे त्याकी कोण बराई । औरनकुं भलो नाम घराई ॥ध्रु.॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Laughing, playing, walking the road, eating, sleeping on the cot. I have no love for caste. I do not distinguish between Hindu, the excluded, or any other. Whoever fixes their chitta on my Rama's name, says Tuka, my chitta is fixed upon their feet. To save oneself is no great virtue. To bring others to the Name is the true glory.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Laughing, playing, walking the road, eating food, sleeping on the cot. I have no love for caste. I draw no line between Hindu, the outcaste, or the leatherworker. Whoever fixes their mind on my Rama's name, Tuka says, my mind is fixed upon their feet. To save oneself alone is no great virtue; to bring others to the Name is the true glory.
What it means
Tukaram describes a faith that lives inside ordinary life, in laughing, walking, eating, and sleeping, not apart from it. He flatly refuses caste as a measure, naming the most despised groups and saying he makes no distinction among them. What he honors is one thing only: whoever holds Rama's name in their mind, and to such a person his own mind bows at their feet. The sharp social claim is that birth counts for nothing while devotion counts for everything. He ends by raising the bar past private salvation: the real glory is to lead others to the Name, not merely to save yourself.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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