The Name, instant cure
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
उभाउभी फळ । अंगीं मंत्राचे या बळ ॥1॥
ह्मणा विठ्ठल विठ्ठल । गोड आणि स्वल्प बोल ॥ध्रु.॥
किळकाळाची बाधा । नव्हे उच्चारितां सदा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे रोग । वारे भवाऐसा भोग ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Instant is the fruit, such is the power of this mantra. Say Vitthal, Vitthal; the words are sweet and simple. The affliction of death and time cannot touch one who utters them always. Says Tuka, the disease of worldly existence itself is cured by this name.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The fruit comes at once; such is the power in this mantra. Say Vitthal, Vitthal: the words are sweet, and only a few. The harm of death and time cannot touch you while you keep saying them. Tuka says: this is the disease whose cure heals the whole sickness of worldly life.
What it means
Tukaram presses the Name as a remedy that asks almost nothing and gives at once. Two sweet, simple words, Vitthal, Vitthal, hold the force of a mantra, and the fruit is immediate rather than delayed to some later life. While the Name is on the lips, death and time, the powers that wear everything down, lose their grip. The claim he lands is the largest one: the very disease of worldly existence, the round of birth and suffering, is what this Name cures. So the smallest practice answers the biggest sickness.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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