Experience, dragging the body to the pyre
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हातीं घेऊनियां काठी । तुका लागला किळवरा पाठी ॥1॥
नेऊनि निजविलें स्मशानीं । माणसें जाळी ते ठाकणीं ॥ध्रु.॥
काडिलें तें ओढें । मागील उपचाराचें पुढें ॥2॥
नाहीं वाटों आला भेव । सुख दुःख भोगिता देव ॥3॥
याजसाटीं हें निर्वाण । केलें कसियेलें मन ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे अनुभव बरा । नाहीं तरी सास्त होय चोरा ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Taking a stick in hand, Tuka went after the corpse. He carried it to the cremation ground, the very place where human bodies are burned. What had been dragged along from past habits was now pulled out and thrown before him. No fear arose; it is God who experiences both joy and sorrow. For this purpose alone this extinction was made, and the mind was put to the test. Says Tuka, experience is good. Without it, one becomes a slave to the thief.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Stick in hand, Tuka went chasing the body down. He carried it off and laid it to rest in the cremation ground, the place where bodies are burned. What had been dragged along from old habits, he pulled out and threw down before him. No fear came. It is God who undergoes both joy and sorrow. For just this, he brought the end about and put the mind to the test. Tuka says: experience is good. Without it, you stay a slave to the thief.
What it means
Tukaram dramatizes the killing of body-identification. He pictures himself hunting down his own corpse-like attachment to the body and carrying it to the cremation ground, the only fit place for what is dead. The leftover pulls of old habit he drags out and casts before him too. No fear comes, because he has seen that pleasure and pain are God's to undergo, not his; for exactly this realization he forced the matter to its end and tested his own mind. The closing line names the lesson: real, tested experience is what frees you, and without it you remain in bondage to the thief, the deceiving sense of "I am the body."
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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