Ecstasy, the imperishable gain
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जोडिलें तें आतां न सरे सारितां । जीव बळी देतां हाता आलें ॥1॥
संचित सारूनि बांधिलें धरणें । तुंबिलें जीवन आक्षय हें ॥ध्रु.॥
शीत उष्ण तेथें सुखदुःख नाहीं । अंतर सबाही एक जालें ॥2॥
बीज तो अंकुर पत्र शाखा फळें । प्राप्तबीज मुळें अवघें नासे ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे नामीं राहिलीसे गोडी । बीजाच्या परवडी होती जाती ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What has been earned can never be exhausted no matter how much is spent; it came into our hands when we gave our very life. The accumulated debt has been settled, and an imperishable reservoir has been stored. There, heat and cold, joy and sorrow do not exist; inner and outer have become one. The seed, the sprout, the leaf, the branch, the fruit: when the original seed is found, all else dissolves. Says Tuka, the sweetness that remains in the name endures as the generations of seeds come and go.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What I have earned now cannot run out, no matter how much I spend. It came into my hand when I gave my very life. My old account is settled; the dam is built. The water is dammed up, and it never runs dry. There heat and cold are gone, joy and sorrow are gone. Inside and out have become one. The seed becomes sprout, leaf, branch, fruit. But when the first seed is found at the root, all the rest dissolves. Tuka says: the sweetness stays in the Name. Seeds keep coming and going, season after season.
What it means
Tukaram is describing a gain that does not behave like any other gain: the more you spend it, the more it stays. He paid for it with his whole life, and now it is an undrained reservoir, a settled debt. In that place the opposites cancel: heat and cold, pleasure and pain, the line between inner and outer all fall away into one thing. He uses the seed and its tree to make the point. Ordinary seeds sprout, fruit, and die in endless rounds, but when you find the original seed at the root, the whole growing-and-dying machinery dissolves; only the sweetness held in the Name keeps its taste.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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