Ecstasy, the self dissolved
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तान्हे तान्ह प्याली । भूक भुकेने खादली ॥1॥
जेथें तें च नाहीं जालें । झाडा घेतला विठ्ठलें ॥ध्रु.॥
वास वासनेसी नाहीं । मन पांगुळलें पायीं ॥2॥
शेष उरला तुका । जीवा जीवीं जाला चुका ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Thirst has drunk up thirst itself. Hunger has been consumed by hunger. Where even the sense of 'there' has been dissolved, Vitthala has swept it all clean. No trace of desire remains; the mind has become lame at his feet. Says Tuka, what remains is the remainder. The jiva has slipped away from the jiva's grasp.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Thirst has drunk up thirst itself. Hunger has eaten hunger. Where even the sense of a 'there' is gone, Vitthala has swept the whole place clean. No scent of desire is left; the mind has gone lame at his feet. Tuka says: what is left is only the remainder. The living being has slipped out of the living being's own grasp.
What it means
Tukaram is pointing at a state where the seeking self has consumed itself and vanished. Thirst drinking thirst and hunger eating hunger mean the very craving that drove him has turned on itself and disappeared; Vitthal has swept the inner space so clean that even the sense of a separate place is gone. The mind, having reached the Lord's feet, can go no further and stops, lame, with no desire left to chase. What remains is only a remainder, and the jiva has lost its grip on itself: the small self that used to manage everything is simply no longer holding on.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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