The Name as nectar, the tongue wanting more
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां हें चि जेऊं हेंचि जेऊं । सवें घेऊं सिदोरी ॥१॥
चवीं चवीं घेऊं घास । ब्रम्हरस आवडी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे गोड लागे । तों तों मागे रसना ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now let us eat this, only this; let us take this packed lunch together. Let us savor each morsel with the taste of Brahman, the divine nectar of delight. Says Tuka, as long as it tastes sweet, the tongue keeps asking for more.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now let us eat just this, only this. Let us take this packed lunch along. Let us savor each mouthful. This is the taste of Brahman, the love we long for. Tuka says: as long as it tastes sweet, the tongue keeps asking for more.
What it means
Tukaram turns the shared field-meal into a figure for tasting God. He resolves to eat this and nothing else and to carry this food with him everywhere, savoring each mouthful slowly. He says outright what the food is: brahmaras, the taste of Brahman itself, the sweetness the heart most wants. The closing line is the joy of it. Unlike ordinary food that cloys, this sweetness only deepens the appetite; the more the tongue tastes it the more it asks. For Tukaram that endless hunger for God is not a lack but the mark of the real thing.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
More in this theme →