The Name, Death barred by flame
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चाल केलासी मोकळा । बोल विठ्ठल वेळोवेळां ॥१॥
तुज पापचि नाहीं ऐसें । नाम घेतां जवळीं वसे ॥ध्रु.॥
पंच पातकांच्या कोडी । नामें जळतां न लगे घडी ॥२॥
केलीं मागें नको राहों । तुज जमान आम्ही आहों ॥३॥
करीं तुज जीं करवती । आणिक नामें घेऊं किती ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे काळा । रीग नाहीं निघती ज्वाळा ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have been set free. Now walk freely, and speak Vitthal's name at every turn. You carry no sin whatsoever. When you take the Name, He comes to dwell beside you. Ten million mortal sins, crores upon crores. The Name burns them all; it does not take even a moment. What was done before, do not dwell on it. We stand surety for you. Whatever deeds you are made to do, and however many Names you are asked to take. Says Tuka: Death has no entry here. Flames issue forth and bar the way.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have been set free; now walk loose and easy, and say Vitthal's name at every turn. It is as if you never had any sin at all: the moment you take the Name, he comes and lives beside you. Ten million deadly sins, crores upon crores of them, the Name burns the whole heap in less than an instant. Do not stay stuck on what you did before; we ourselves stand surety for you. Whatever deeds you are set to do, however many Names you are asked to take, take them. Tuka says: into this, Death has no entrance; flames leap up and bar his way.
What it means
A poem of total reassurance built on the power of the Name. Tukaram tells the burdened soul it is already free: take Vitthal's name and God himself moves in beside you, so completely that it is as though no sin had ever been. Even an unimaginable mass of sins is burned away in a moment by the Name. He meets the one obstacle, guilt over the past, head on: do not dwell there, for we, the saints, stand surety for you. And he ends with a guarantee of safety: where the Name is, Death cannot enter, turned back by a wall of flame. The Name does not merely cleanse; it stands guard.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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