Renunciation, naked and provided for
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाणिपात्र दिगांबरा । हस्त करा सारिखे ॥1॥
आवश्यक देव मनीं । चिंतनींच सादर ॥ध्रु.॥
भिक्षा कामधेनुऐशी । अवकाशीं शयन ॥2॥
पांघरोनि तुका दिशा ॥ केला वास अलक्षीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
With cupped hands as my vessel, naked as the sky, my hands made alike. God alone in my mind, and I am absorbed in contemplation. Begging is my Kamadhenu, and the open sky is my bed. Says Tuka, wrapping the directions around me as a shawl, I have made my home in the invisible.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My cupped hands are my begging-bowl; I am naked as the sky, my hands made enough on their own. God alone is in my mind, and I am absorbed, intent, in nothing but contemplation. Begging is my wish-granting cow; the open sky is where I sleep. Tuka says: wrapping the directions around me as a shawl, I have made my home in the unseen.
What it means
Tukaram paints the life of the radical renunciant who owns nothing and lacks nothing. He has no bowl but his own cupped hands, no clothes but the sky, no shelter but the open air, and yet he is provided for: begging itself is his Kamadhenu, the cow that grants every wish. The poverty is total and the contentment is total, because the one thing he holds is God, fixed in his mind. The closing image makes the surrender complete. With the four directions as his only shawl, he has settled his home in the invisible, in God beyond all form.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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