Ecstasy, love that never runs dry
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आवडी न पुरे सेवितां न सरे । पडियेली धुरेसवें गांठी ॥1॥
न पुरे हा जन्म हें सुख सांटितां । पुढती ही आतां हें चि मागों ॥ध्रु.॥
मारगाची चिंता पालखी बैसतां । नाहीं उसंतितां कोसपेणी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझी विठ्ठल माउली । जाणे ते लागली भूक तान ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The more I taste this love, the more it grows; it never runs dry, for it is knotted to the very source. This one life is not enough to store all this joy, and in future births I will ask for the same. When one rides in a palanquin, the worry of the road vanishes; there is no fatigue even over great distances. Says Tuka, my Vitthal is my mother, and she knows my every hunger and thirst.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The more I taste this love, the more it grows. It never runs out, for it is knotted to the very source. This one life is not enough to store this joy; in lives to come I will ask for the same again. When you ride in a palanquin, the worry of the road is gone; there is no weariness even over a long way. Tuka says: my Vitthal is my mother, and she knows the hunger and thirst that have come on me.
What it means
Tukaram describes a love that defies the usual law of pleasure, where tasting diminishes the supply; here tasting only deepens it, because it is tied directly to its inexhaustible source. So fully does this joy possess him that one lifetime cannot contain it, and he will gladly choose the same love in every birth to come. The palanquin image names the ease of the devotee's path: carried by God, he feels none of the strain of the road. The poem closes in the mother bond, where Vitthal as mother already knows his hunger and thirst, so he need not even ask to be fed.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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