The Name, the childlike tongue
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विधिनिषेधाचा भारा । तेणें दातारा नातुडेसी ॥1॥
ह्मणोनि बोबडा उत्तरीं । वाचें जपें निरंतरीं ।
नाम तुझें हरी । भवसागरीं तारूं तें ॥ध्रु.॥
सर्वमय ऐसें वेदांचें वचन । श्रुति गर्जती पुराणें ।
नाहीं आणीक ध्यान । रे साधन मज चाड ॥2॥
शेवटीं ब्रह्मार्पण । या चि मंत्राचें कारण ।
काना मात्र वांयांविण । तुका ह्मणे बिंदुलीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The burden of rules and prohibitions makes you unreachable, O Giver. Therefore with stammering, childlike speech, my tongue repeats your Name ceaselessly, O Hari, that raft upon the ocean of existence. All is pervaded by you: thus thunder the Shrutis, thus proclaim the Puranas. I have no other meditation, no other practice, no other desire. At the end of every ritual comes the offering to Brahman. That mantra is the reason for everything. Says Tuka, without even a vowel mark or a dot, the Name alone suffices.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The burden of rules and prohibitions makes you unreachable, O Giver. So with stammering, childlike speech my tongue repeats your Name without stopping. Your Name, O Hari, is the raft on the ocean of this existence. All is filled with you: so thunder the Shrutis, so proclaim the Puranas. I have no other meditation, no other practice, no other longing. At the end of every ritual comes the offering to Brahman; that mantra is the reason for all of it. Tuka says: without even a vowel mark or a dot, the Name alone is enough.
What it means
Tukaram sets the tangle of ritual rules against the simplicity of the Name and chooses the Name. He admits the heavy code of do's and don'ts can make God feel out of reach, so he drops it for a child's stammering repetition of Hari's Name, which he calls the raft across the ocean of birth and death. He grounds this in scripture itself: the Shrutis and Puranas say God pervades everything, so no further practice is needed. His final claim is the boldest. Every ritual ends by offering its fruit to Brahman anyway, so the Name, spoken plainly without even correct pronunciation, already carries the whole point and suffices on its own.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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