The Name, easy where everything else is hard
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मंत्र चळ पिसें लागतें सत्वर । अबद्ध ते फार तरले नामें ॥1॥
आशोचे तो बाधी आणिकां अक्षरां । नाम निदसुरा घेतां तरे ॥ध्रु.॥
रागज्ञानघात चुकतां होय वेळ । नाम सर्वकाळ शुभदायक॥2॥
आणिकां भजना बोलिला निषेध । नाम तें अभेद सकळां मुखीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तपें घालिती घालणी । वेश्या उद्धरूनि नेली नामें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mantra, if performed incorrectly, can bring on madness quickly. But many who uttered the Name without discipline were saved. Other syllables cause harm if spoken carelessly, yet one who takes the Name even in sleep is liberated. If melody, knowledge, or rhythm go wrong, there may be delay, but the Name is auspicious at all times. Other forms of worship have prohibitions, but the Name may be spoken by all, without restriction. Says Tuka, austerities cause people to stumble and fall, but the Name alone uplifted even the courtesan.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mantra said wrong brings madness, and quickly. Yet many who said the Name with no skill at all were carried across. Other syllables, said carelessly, do harm. But take the Name even half asleep, and you are saved. If the tune slips, or the knowledge, or the beat, there is only delay. The Name is good at every hour. Other worship has its rules and its forbidden things. The Name has no such bar; every mouth may speak it. Tuka says: austerities make people stumble and fall. The Name lifted up even the courtesan.
What it means
Tukaram is contrasting the danger of the spiritual technologies with the safety of the Name. A mantra mispronounced, a rite done wrong, an austerity attempted, these can break the one who tries; they demand precision and earn punishment for error. The Name asks none of that: spoken badly, sleepily, by anyone at all, it still carries the speaker across. The stakes he is naming are who is allowed to come close to God. Where the rule-bound paths shut most people out and trip even the careful, the Name opens the door to everyone, which is why he points to the courtesan, the one the rules would exclude, as the very proof of its reach.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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