Relief, the burden lifted
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां बरें जालें । माझे माथांचें निघालें ॥1॥
चुकली हे मरमर । भार माथांचे डोंगर ॥ध्रु.॥
नसतां कांहीं जोडी । करिती बहुतें तडातोडी ॥2॥
जाला झाडापाडा । तुका ह्मणे गेली पीडा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now it is well; the weight has been lifted from my head. The ceaseless anxiety is over; the mountains of burden are gone. Without any real gain, people keep tearing themselves apart. Says Tuka, the clutter has been cleared away and the torment is ended.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now it is well. The weight has come off my head. The ceaseless toil is over; the mountains of burden are gone. With no real gain to show, people tear themselves apart. Tuka says: the clutter is cleared, the torment is over.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the ease that follows surrender, when the load he had carried is simply gone. The grinding toil and the mountains of care are lifted off, and he marvels at the relief. He looks back at how people exhaust themselves for gains that turn out to be nothing. Once the accounts are cleared and handed over, the inner clutter goes with them. The poem is the breath you let out after setting down a weight you carried too long.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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