Ecstasy, the message from home arrives
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माहेरींचें आलें तें मज माहेर । सुखाचें उत्तर करिन त्यासी ॥1॥
पायांवरी माथा आिंळगीन बाहीं । घेईन लवलाहीं पायवणी ॥ध्रु.॥
सुख समाचार पुसेन सकळ । कैसा पर्वकाळ आहे त्यास ॥2॥
आपुले जीवींचें सुखदुःख भावें । सांगेन अघवें आहे तैसें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whatever has come from my true home, that itself is my home. I will return their happy message with joy. Placing my head on their feet, I will embrace them and wash their feet with devotion. I will inquire about all the news: how the festive times are passing there. I will share my own joys and sorrows with honest feeling, telling everything just as it is.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever has come from my true home, that itself is my home to me. I will answer it with words of joy. I will lay my head on their feet, embrace them, and quickly wash their feet. I will ask all the news: how the festival times are passing there. With honest feeling I will tell out all the joy and sorrow of my own heart, just as it is.
What it means
The waiting breaks, and what comes from the māhera is welcomed as the māhera itself; the messenger is the home. Tukaram pours out his joy: he bows his head to their feet, embraces them, hurries to wash their feet in devotion. Then he wants everything, all the news of how the festivals pass there, the whole life of the place where God dwells. And he gives himself in return, holding nothing back, telling his own joys and sorrows exactly as they are. The reunion is a frank, two-way opening of the heart between the soul and the home it loves.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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