Awe, watching Maya from the shore
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माया मोहोजाळीं होतों सांपडलों । परि या विठ्ठला कृपा आली ॥1॥
काढूनि बाहेरि ठेविलों निराळा । कवतुक डोळां दाखविलें ॥ध्रु.॥
नाचे उडे माया करी कवतुक । नासिवंत सुखें साच केलीं ॥2॥
रडे काुंफ्दे दुःखें कुटितील माथा । एकासी रडतां तें ही मरे ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मज वाटतें नवल । मी माझे बोल ऐकोनियां ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I was caught in the net of illusion, but Vitthal's grace descended upon me. He pulled me out and set me apart, letting me watch the spectacle with my own eyes. Illusion dances and performs its tricks, making perishable joys seem real. Some weep and beat their heads in grief. While mourning for one, the mourner also perishes. Says Tuka, wonder arises in me as I hear my own words.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I was caught in the net of delusion. But Vitthal's grace came to me. He pulled me out and set me apart, and let my own eyes watch the show. Maya dances and leaps and plays her tricks, making perishable joys seem real. Some weep and beat their heads in grief. Mourning for one, the mourner himself dies too. Tuka says: wonder rises in me as I hear my own words.
What it means
Tukaram describes being snared in the net of delusion and then lifted clear of it by Vitthal's grace, set apart so that he now watches Maya as a spectator rather than a captive. From that vantage he sees the whole performance for what it is: an illusion that dances and dazzles, dressing perishable things up as real and worth grieving. He notes the cruelty of the trick, that a mourner is so bound to what dies that he dies along with it. The last line is the awe of a man surprised by his own clarity, hearing words come out of him that he could not have spoken from inside the net.
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