Ecstasy, the giver overflows
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मागतियाचे दोनि च कर । अमित भांडार दातियाचें ॥1॥
काय करूं आतां कासयांत भरूं । हा मज विचारु पडियेला ॥ध्रु.॥
एकें सांटवणें प्रेमें वोसंडलीं । जिव्हा हे भागली करितां माप ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां आहे तेथें असो । अंखुनियां बैसों पायांपाशीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The beggar has only two hands, but the treasury of the giver is limitless. What shall I do now, into what vessel shall I receive all this? The storerooms of love are overflowing, and the tongue is exhausted from measuring it all out. Says Tuka, let whatever is, simply be; I will sit down at His feet and gaze upon Him.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The beggar has only two hands. The giver's treasury has no limit. What do I do now? What vessel can hold all this? This is the trouble I am in. The storerooms of love spill over. My tongue is worn out from measuring it all. Tuka says: let whatever is, simply be. I will sit at his feet and gaze.
What it means
Tukaram describes being overwhelmed by a love too large to receive. He casts himself as a beggar with only two hands held out, while God's treasury of grace is endless, so the very abundance becomes a sweet problem: there is no vessel big enough to hold it. Even the tongue, trying to measure and name the love, gives out exhausted. So he abandons the effort to contain or account for it and simply sits at the feet and looks, letting the overflow be what it is.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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