The Name burns karma away
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जळातें संचित । ऐसी आहे धर्म नीत ॥1॥
माझ्या विठोबाचे पाय । वेळोवेळां मनीं ध्याय ॥ध्रु.॥
नेदी कर्म घडों । कोठें आडराणें पडों ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मळ । राहों नेदी ताप जाळ ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Accumulated karma is burned away: such is the way of dharma. Meditate upon the feet of my Vithoba again and again, in the mind. He does not let wrongful action arise, nor let one fall into any wilderness of obstruction. Says Tuka, He will not allow impurity to remain. He burns away the blaze of affliction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Stored-up karma is burned away: this is the law of dharma. Meditate on the feet of my Vithoba again and again in your mind. He does not let wrong action arise, nor let you fall into any wilderness of confusion. Tuka says: he will not let the stain remain; he burns away the blaze of affliction.
What it means
Tukaram offers a single practice as the whole of dharma: hold the feet of Vithoba in the mind, again and again. He promises that this remembrance works on three fronts at once. It burns away the karma already accumulated; it keeps fresh wrongdoing from arising and keeps you from straying into confusion; and it does not let the stain of impurity settle or the fire of suffering keep burning. The claim is that constant remembrance of God is not one duty among many but the thing that cleans the past, guards the present, and quenches affliction altogether.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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