The Name as medicine, the only cure
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ब्रह्मरस घेई काढा । जेणें पीडा वारेल ॥1॥
पथ्य नाम विठोबाचें । अणीक वाचे न सेवीं ॥ध्रु.॥
भवरोगाऐसें जाय । आणीक काय क्षुल्लकें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नव्हे बाधा । अणीक कदा भूतांची ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Take this medicine of divine essence; it will cure your affliction. The proper diet is Vithoba's name; let nothing else touch your tongue. When the disease of worldly existence itself is destroyed, what are all other petty ailments? Says Tuka, no other spirit or demon can cause harm after that.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Take this medicine of divine essence; it will end your suffering. The proper diet is Vithoba's name. Let nothing else touch your tongue. When the very disease of worldly existence is gone, what are all the petty ailments? Tuka says: after that, no other spirit or demon can harm you.
What it means
Tukaram prescribes the Name like a physician prescribing a cure: the divine essence is the medicine that ends suffering, and Vithoba's name is the strict diet, with nothing else allowed on the tongue. He frames worldly existence itself as the root disease, so once that is healed every lesser trouble loses its weight. The closing line extends the protection: with the great sickness cured, no other malign power, no spirit or demon, can do any harm. The whole abhanga reduces the cure for life to a single remedy, the Name.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
More in this theme →