Gratitude, a debt past paying
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आमुप जोडल्या सुखाचिया रासी । पार त्या भाग्यासी नाहीं आतां ॥1॥
काय सांगों सुख जालें आलिंगन । निवाली दर्शनें कांति माझी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे यांच्या उपकारासाटीं । नाहीं माझे गांठी कांहीं एक ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Heaps of joy have been gathered for us; there is no measure to our fortune now. How can I describe the bliss of the embrace? My being was cooled by their very sight. Says Tuka, for their kindness, I have nothing in my store to offer in return.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Heaps of joy have been gathered for us; there is no measure now to such good fortune. How can I tell the bliss of that embrace? My whole being was cooled by the sight of them. Tuka says: for their kindness I have nothing in my store to give back.
What it means
Tukaram is overwhelmed by the company of the saints and devotees, and the poem stays inside that overwhelm. Their embrace and their mere presence cool him, the way water cools fever; the fortune is past counting. Then he names the one thing he cannot do: repay it. He has nothing in his store worth setting against what they have given. Gratitude here is the honest discovery that the gift is too large to be answered, and that the only response left is to receive it.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →