Kirtan washes the world clean
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संसाराचे अंगीं अवघीं च वेसनें । आह्मी या कीर्तनें शुद्ध जालों ॥1॥
आतां हें सोंवळें जालें त्रिभुवन । विषम धोऊन सांडियेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
ब्रह्मपुरीं वास करणें अखंड । न देखिजे तोंड विटाळाचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मां एकांताचा वास । ब्रह्मीं ब्रह्मरस सेवूं सदा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The worldly life carries every affliction, but through kirtan we have become pure. Now all three worlds have become sanctified; the poison of duality has been washed away completely. We dwell continuously in the city of Brahman and never see the face of impurity. Says Tuka, we live in solitude, drinking the nectar of Brahman in Brahman forever.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Worldly life carries every affliction, but through kirtan we have become pure. Now all three worlds have become clean; the poison of duality has been washed off and thrown away. We live without break in the city of Brahman, and never see the face of impurity. Tuka says: ours is a dwelling in solitude; in Brahman we drink the nectar of Brahman forever.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts ordinary worldly life, which he says is full of every affliction, with the life cleansed by kirtan. The impurity he names is not ritual dirt but duality itself, the split into clean and unclean, self and other, which he calls a poison now washed away. Once that splitting is gone, all three worlds look sanctified and there is no impure face left anywhere to see. He describes the result as living unbroken in the city of Brahman, in a solitude that is fullness rather than loneliness. The closing image is of drinking the nectar of Brahman while already in Brahman, the seeker, the drink, and the place having become one.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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