The Name, the sacred story as everything
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कथा दुःख हरी कथा मुक्त करी । कथा याची बरी विठोबाची ॥1॥
कथा पाप नासी उद्धरिले दोषी । समाधि कथेसी मूढजना ॥ध्रु.॥
कथा तप ध्यान कथा अनुष्ठान । अमृत हे पान हरिकथा ॥2॥
कथा मंत्रजप कथा हरी ताप । कथाकाळी कांप किळकाळासी ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे कथा देवाचें ही ध्यान । समाधि लागोन उभा तेथें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The sacred story destroys sorrow; the sacred story grants liberation. The best story is that of Vithoba. The sacred story annihilates sin and purifies the wrongdoer; even the dullest soul attains samadhi through the story. The sacred story is penance, meditation, and discipline; the nectar of all nourishment is the story of Hari. The story is the chanting of mantras; the story dispels all suffering; at the time of the story, even death trembles. Says Tuka, the sacred story is even God's own meditation; He stands there absorbed in samadhi.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The story takes away sorrow; the story sets free. The best story is Vithoba's. The story destroys sin and lifts up the wrongdoer; through the story even the dull-witted reach samadhi. The story is penance, is meditation, is discipline; the story of Hari is nectar to drink. The story is the chanting of mantras; the story burns away suffering; when the story is told, death itself trembles. Tuka says: the story is even God's own meditation; he stands there, lost in samadhi.
What it means
Tukaram is making one claim many times: hearing and telling the sacred story of God is itself the whole of religion. He stacks the disciplines that usually cost years, penance, meditation, mantra, ritual, and says the story does all of their work at once, and does it for everyone, even the dullest and the worst. The point is that the hard ladder of effort is replaced by something anyone can join, the simple telling of Hari's deeds. He pushes it to the limit at the end: the story is so powerful that God himself stands listening to it, absorbed, as though it were his own meditation.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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