The Name, the innermost seed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हित तें हें एक राम कंठीं राहे । नाठविती देहभाव देही ॥1॥
हा चि एक धर्म निज बीजवर्म । हें चि जाळी कर्में केलीं महा ॥ध्रु.॥
चित्त राहे पायीं रूप बैसे डोळां । जीवें कळवळा आवडीचा ॥2॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The one true good is this: let Rama dwell on your tongue and never recall the body-sense again. This alone is the highest dharma, the innermost seed; it alone burns away all great karmas. Let the mind rest at His feet, let His form fill the eyes, and let the jiva overflow with loving eagerness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one true good is this: let Rama stay on your tongue, and stop dwelling on the body-sense within the body. This alone is the highest dharma, the innermost seed of the Self; this alone burns up even the greatest deeds. Let the mind rest at his feet, let his form fill the eyes, and let the jiva overflow with loving longing.
What it means
Tukaram reduces the whole of religion to one practice. The single real good, he says, is to keep Rama's name on the tongue and to stop feeding the sense of being only this body. He ranks this above all observances: it is the highest dharma and the secret seed at the core of the Self, and it can burn away even the heaviest accumulated karma. He then describes what it looks like lived out: the mind settled at God's feet, the eyes filled with his form, the heart brimming with eager love. Everything else is set aside for this.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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