Ecstasy, the secret given by the saints
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मी नाचों तेणें सुखें । वाऊं टाळी गातों मुखें॥1॥
देव कृपेचा कोंवळा । शरणागता पाळी लळा ॥ध्रु.॥
आह्मां जाला हा निर्धार । मागें तारिलें अपार ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे संतीं । वर्म दिलें आह्मां हातीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We dance in that joy, clapping our hands and singing with our lips. God is tender with compassion; He nurtures the devotion of those who surrender. This has become our firm conviction: in the past, He saved countless souls. Says Tuka, the saints have placed the secret directly in our hands.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We dance in that joy, we clap our hands, we sing with our mouths. God is tender with mercy; he tends the love of those who take refuge. This has become our settled conviction: he has saved countless souls before. Tuka says: the saints have placed the secret in our hands.
What it means
Tukaram describes the joy of singing and dancing the Name, and grounds it in confidence rather than mood. God, tender with mercy, nurses the devotion of anyone who surrenders, the way one tends a small child. Their certainty rests on memory: he has rescued countless souls already, so he will not fail now. And the whole secret of this, Tukaram says, was not invented by them but handed to them by the saints, which is why they can dance without doubt.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →