Autobiography, the command to sing
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नामदेवें केलें स्वप्नामाजी जागें । सवें पांडुरंगें येऊनियां ॥1॥
सांगितलें काम करावें कवित्व । वाउगें निमित्य बोलों नको ॥ध्रु.॥
माप टाकी सळ धरिली विठ्ठलें । थापटोनि केलें सावधान ॥2॥
प्रमाणाची संख्या सांगे शत कोटी । उरले शेवटीं लावी तुका ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Namdev awakened me within a dream, and Panduranga came along with him. They told me to compose poetry and not to speak idle words. Vitthala struck his measuring rod and, clapping, made me alert. The prescribed count was told: a hundred crores. Says Tuka, whatever remains at the end, I shall complete.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Namdev woke me inside a dream, and Panduranga came along with him. They told me to compose poetry and not to speak idle words. Vitthala struck His measuring rod and, clapping, made me alert. The set count was told: a hundred crores. Tuka says: whatever is left at the end, I shall complete.
What it means
Tukaram tells the dream that he received as his calling to write. Namdev, the old saint, wakes him within the dream and comes accompanied by Panduranga himself, and the charge is simple and strict: make poetry, and speak no idle words. The image of Vitthala striking a measuring rod and clapping him awake makes the commission feel like an assignment with a fixed measure, a hundred crores of verses. Tukaram accepts the debt as his own, vowing to finish whatever portion of that count remains undone.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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