The Name, sweeter than every taste
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझें नाम गोड नाम गोड । पुरे कोड सकळ ही ॥1॥
रसना येरां रसां विटे । घेतां घोट अधिक हें ॥ध्रु.॥
आणिकां रसें मरण गांठी । येणें तुटी संसारें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आहार जाला। हा विठ्ठला आह्मांसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your name is sweet, so sweet; it fulfills every longing. The tongue grows tired of all other tastes, yet with every sip of this nectar it wants more. Other flavors bring death in their wake, but this one severs the bonds of worldly existence. Says Tuka, this name of Vitthal has become our daily sustenance.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your name is sweet, so sweet; it satisfies every longing. The tongue grows sick of all other tastes, but with each sip of this it wants more. Other flavors carry death at the end of them; this one cuts the bonds of worldly life. Tuka says: this name of Vitthal has become our food, O Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram sets the Name against every other pleasure as a taste that does the opposite of what tastes do. Ordinary flavors cloy and tire the tongue, and each one, he says, leads at last to death; the Name alone deepens with every repetition and never satiates. The single sharp claim is that this one taste cuts the knot of worldly existence instead of binding tighter. Calling it his daily food turns devotion into something as constant and bodily as eating: not an occasional rite but the sustenance he lives on.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
More in this theme →