Nature of God, bound by 'mine'
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुक्त होता परी बळें जाला बद्ध । घेउनियां छंद माझें माझें ॥1॥
पाप पुण्य अंगीं घेतलें जडून । वर्म नेणे कोण करिता तो ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वांयां गेलें वांयां विण । जैसा मृगशीण मृगजळीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Free it was, yet by the force of clinging to "mine, mine" it became bound. Sin and merit clung fast to the body; the person does not know the vital secret of who the real doer is. Says Tuka, what goes to waste is lost entirely, like a deer worn out by a mirage.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
It was free. Then by its own force it became bound, taking up the chant of mine, mine. Sin and merit clung to it and stuck fast. It does not know the secret of who the real doer is. Tuka says: it was wasted, lost for nothing, like a deer worn out chasing a mirage.
What it means
Tukaram describes how a soul that was already free traps itself. Nothing from outside binds it; it binds itself by clutching at mine, mine, taking ownership of what was never its own. Once that grasping starts, sin and merit fasten onto it like a weight that will not come off, and it goes on suffering them because it has forgotten the one thing that frees: that it is not truly the doer at all. The deer chasing a mirage is the whole life in one picture, exhausting itself in pursuit of water that was never there, and Tukaram calls such a life wasted, lost for nothing.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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