Realization, the dross burned off
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अनुभवें अनुभव अवघा चि साधिला । तरि िस्थरावला मनु ठायीं ॥1॥
पिटूनियां मुसे आला अळंकार । दग्ध तें असार होऊनियां ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी जिंकिला संसार । होऊनि किंकर विठोबाचे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Through experience upon experience, everything has been accomplished. Then the mind grew still, settled in its place. Hammered in the crucible, the ornament emerges; what was dross has been burned away. Says Tuka, we have conquered this world of becoming by becoming servants of Vithoba.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Through experience upon experience, the whole thing was won. Then the mind grew still and settled in its place. Hammered in the crucible, the ornament comes out; what was dross has been burned away. Tuka says: we have conquered this world of becoming by becoming servants of Vithoba.
What it means
Tukaram describes arrival, not theory: it was direct experience piled on direct experience that finally accomplished everything, and the proof is a mind that has gone quiet and come to rest. He reaches for the goldsmith's image: the metal is hammered and fired in the crucible until the worthless dross burns off and only the true ornament remains, which is what happens to a life passed through devotion. The closing turn is his characteristic paradox: the way they conquered samsara was not by mastering it but by surrendering, by becoming servants of Vithoba.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
More in this theme →