The Name, no grammar required
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न लगे पाहावें अबद्ध वांकडें । उच्चारावें कोडें नाम तुझें ॥1॥
नाहीं वेळ नाहीं पंडितांचा धाक । होत कां वाचक वेदवक्ते ॥ध्रु.॥
पुराणीं ही कोठें न मिळे पाहातां । तैशीं या अनंता ठेवूं नामें ॥2॥
आपुलिया मना उपजे आनंद । तैसे करूं छंद कथेकाळीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी आनंदें चि धालों । आनंद चि ल्यालों अळंकार ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
There is no need to worry about grammar or correctness; just utter Your name with delight. There is no fixed time, no fear of the pandits. Need one be a scholar or a master of the Vedas? Even in the Puranas, one cannot find all that is there to find; so let us give You whatever names our minds desire, O Infinite One. Let the mind give rise to its own joy; let us make our own music at the time of the sacred story. Says Tuka, we are filled with bliss alone; we wear bliss itself as our ornament.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
There is no need to fret over wrong grammar or a crooked phrase. Just say your name with delight. There is no set time, and no need to fear the pandits. Must one be a reciter, a master of the Vedas? Even searching the Puranas, you cannot find all there is to find; so let us give you, O Infinite One, whatever names our minds choose. Let joy rise in our own minds; let us make our own music while we tell your story. Tuka says: we are filled with bliss alone; we wear bliss itself as our ornament.
What it means
Tukaram clears away every gatekeeper that stands between an ordinary person and the Name. Correct grammar, the prescribed hour, the approval of scholars, mastery of the Vedas: none of it is required to call on God. Since not even the Puranas exhaust who the Infinite is, no fixed vocabulary can fence him in, so any name the heart offers is allowed. What matters is the joy that rises and the song the devotee makes in telling God's story. The closing image makes the whole claim: bliss is not a reward earned by qualification but the very ornament the singer already wears.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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