Ecstasy, the end of coming and going
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्षणभरी आम्ही सोसिलें वाईट । साधिलें अवीट निजसुख ॥१॥
सांडी मांडी मागें केल्या भरोवरी । अधिक चि परी दुःखाचिया ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे येणें जाणें नाहीं आतां । राहिलों अनंताचिये पायीं ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
For a brief moment we endured what was difficult, and gained the Self's own unfading joy. All that giving up and starting over, again and again, only multiplied the sorrows. Tuka says: no more coming, no more going. I remain at Ananta's feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We bore something hard for a moment, and won a joy that never goes stale, the joy that is our own true nature. All that letting go and beginning again, over and over, only added to the sorrow. Tuka says: now there is no more coming and going. I have come to rest at the feet of the endless one.
What it means
Tukaram weighs two paths against each other. One is the endless round of renouncing a thing, then grasping a new thing, then renouncing again, which only multiplies grief. The other is a brief, sharp difficulty that buys a joy which does not fade, the happiness that is the Self's own nature. Coming and going is his name for rebirth, the soul moving from body to body. To rest at God's feet is to step out of that traffic for good.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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