Ecstasy, God stored within
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दैन्य दुःख आह्मां न येती जवळी । दहन हे होळी होती दोष ॥1॥
सर्व सुखें येती मानें लोटांगणीं । कोण यांसी आणी दृष्टीपुढें ॥ध्रु.॥
आमुची आवडी संतसमागम । आणीक त्या नाम विठोबाचें ॥2॥
आमचें मागणें मागों त्याची सेवा । मोक्षाची निद।वा कोणा चाड ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे पोटीं सांटविला देव । नुन्य तो भाव कोण आह्मां ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Poverty and sorrow cannot come near us; our sins are burned in a bonfire. All joys come bowing before us; who brings these things before our eyes? Our delight is the company of the saints and, beyond that, the name of Vithoba. Our only request is to serve Him; who cares for the stale fare of liberation? Says Tuka, we have stored God within our chitta; what devotion could we possibly lack?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Poverty and sorrow cannot come near us; our faults are burned up in a bonfire. All joys come bowing low before us. Who can even hold these things up in front of our eyes? Our delight is the company of the saints, and beyond that, the name of Vithoba. All we ask is to serve him; who wants the stale leftover of liberation? Tuka says: we have stored God inside the chitta. What devotion could we still be lacking?
What it means
Tukaram describes the security of one who already holds the highest good. With God kept within the heart, poverty and grief cannot approach, and faults are burned away as in a fire; ordinary pleasures are so far beneath him that they bow rather than tempt. His two joys are the company of the saints and the name of Vithoba, and his single request is simply to serve. The sharp line is his dismissal of liberation as stale leftover fare: release is no prize to one who has the living God within and wants nothing more than to keep loving him.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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