The mind's snake-in-a-rope, resting in the all-pervading Lord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अंतराय पडे गोविंदीं अंतर । जो जो घ्यावा भार तो चि बाधी ॥1॥
बैसलिये ठायीं आठवीन पाय । पाहीन तो ठाय तुझा देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
अखंड तें खंडे संकल्पीं विकल्प । मनोजन्य पाप रज्जुसर्प ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विश्वीं विश्वंभर वसे । राहों ऐसे दशे सुखरूप ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Obstacles create distance from Govinda. Every burden one takes up only hinders further. Wherever I sit, I will remember Your feet and seek that place where You dwell, O God. The continuous flow is broken by doubts and conflicting thoughts; like the snake seen in a rope, all such trouble is mind-born. Says Tuka, the Lord pervades the entire universe. Let me remain in that blissful state.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Obstacles fall and make a gap from Govinda. Whatever burden you take up is the very thing that harms you. Wherever I sit, I will remember your feet. I will look for that place where you are, O God. The unbroken is broken by doubt inside the resolve; the sin is born of the mind, like a snake seen in a rope. Tuka says: the all-holding Lord lives in the whole world. Let me stay in such a state, made of happiness.
What it means
Tukaram traces how distance from God opens up and how it closes again. Every load we pick up, every added concern, is the thing that wedges a gap between us and Govinda. So he resolves that wherever he is seated he will hold the Lord's feet in mind and keep seeking the place where God dwells. The break in steady remembrance comes from doubt rising inside resolve, and the fear or fault it breeds is mind-made, no more real than a snake mistaken in a coiled rope. Since the Lord pervades the entire world, he asks only to rest in that recognition and be made of its bliss.
Worldly Life
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