Ecstasy, born of myself, dead to myself
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मीचि मज व्यालों । पोटा आपुलिया आलों ॥1॥
आतां पुरले नवस । निरसोनी गेली आस ॥ध्रु.॥
जालों बरा बळी। गेलों मरोनि तेकाळीं ॥2॥
दोहींकडे पाहे । तुका आहे तैसा आहे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have given birth to myself; I have emerged from my own womb. Now all vows are fulfilled, and all hope has dissolved. I have grown truly strong, for at that moment I died to my old self. Says Tuka, looking in both directions, I am as I have always been.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have given birth to myself; I have come out of my own womb. Now all my vows are fulfilled, and all hope has dissolved. I have grown truly strong, for in that moment I died. Tuka says: looking on both sides, Tuka is just as he has always been.
What it means
Tukaram describes awakening as being born from himself, as if he were both mother and child of his own new life. With that birth every vow he made is met and every hope falls away, since there is nothing left to hope for. He says this strength came through a death: the old self died at the very moment the new one was born. Looking back at who he was and forward at who he is, he finds no real difference, because what he truly is was never born and never lost.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →