The Name, love comes uninvited
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रेम तेथें वास करी । मुखीं उच्चारितां हरी ॥1॥
प्रेम यावें तया गांवा । चोजवीत या वैष्णवां ॥ध्रु.॥
प्रेमें पाठी लागे बळें। भक्त देखोनियां भोळे ॥2॥
प्रेम न वजे दवडितां । शिरे बळें जेथें कथा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे थोर आशा । प्रेमा घरीं विष्णुदासां॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Love dwells wherever the name of Hari is uttered. Love comes to that village and delights the Vaishnavas. Love forcefully pursues the innocent devotee. Love cannot be driven away; it enters by force wherever the sacred story is told. Says Tuka, great is the hope of love in the homes of Vishnu's servants.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Love dwells wherever the mouth speaks Hari. Love comes to that village and seeks out the Vaishnavas there. Love runs after the simple devotee and catches him by force. Love cannot be driven off; wherever the holy story is told, it pushes its way in. Tuka says: great is the hope of love in the homes of Vishnu's servants.
What it means
Tukaram says that where the name of Hari is spoken, love takes up residence on its own. He pictures love not as something the devotee must work to produce but as something that hunts the devotee down, pursuing the simple-hearted and forcing its way into any gathering where the sacred story is told. It cannot be turned away. The point is that the practice is not the devotee climbing toward God by effort; it is love arriving wherever the Name is, so the homes of God's servants are full of expectation.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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