Ecstasy, surrounded by Hari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आंत हरि बाहेर हरि । हरिनें घरीं कोंडिलें ॥1॥
हरिनें कामा घातला चिरा । वित्तवरा मुकविलें ॥ध्रु.॥
हरिने जीवें केली साटी । पाडिली तुटी सकळांसी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वेगळा नव्हे । हरि भोवे भोंवताला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Hari is within, Hari is without. Hari has enclosed me inside the house. Hari drove a wedge through desire and freed me from wealth's mastery. Hari staked this very life in the transaction and severed all other ties. Says Tuka, Hari is not separate from me. Hari surrounds me on every side.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Hari within, Hari without. Hari has shut me up inside the house. Hari drove a wedge through my desire and freed me from the rule of wealth. Hari staked my very life in the bargain and cut off all my other ties. Tuka says: Hari is not separate from me. Hari is all around me, on every side.
What it means
Tukaram describes being completely enclosed by God, inside and outside, with no exit left. He frames this takeover as a series of decisive acts by Hari: desire split open with a wedge, the grip of wealth broken, life itself put on the table and every competing attachment severed. What sounds like confinement is really liberation, since the bonds cut are the ones that held him captive. The closing line names the state plainly: Hari is no longer an other to be reached but the presence surrounding him on all sides and inseparable from him.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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