Ecstasy, death has died
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मरण माझें मरोन गेलें । मज केलें अमर ॥1॥
ठाव पुसिलें बुड पुसिलें । वोस वोसलें देहभावा ॥ध्रु.॥
आला होता गेला पूर । धरिला धीर जीवनीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बुनादीचें । जालें साचें उजवणें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My death itself has died; I have been made immortal. All ground has been erased, all foundation dissolved; the sense of being a body has been emptied out. The flood that had come has passed, and steadiness has been found in the waters of life. Says Tuka, the original foundation has been truly settled and celebrated.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My death itself has died. It has made me immortal. The ground is wiped away, the bottom is wiped away; the sense of being a body is emptied out. The flood that had come has passed; steadiness is found in the waters of life. Tuka says: the foundation has been truly settled and made bright.
What it means
Tukaram is describing what happens when the fear of dying is itself undone. He says his own death has died, and that very ending has left him deathless. Every ground he once stood on, and the bottom under it, is wiped clean, and the deep conviction of being only a body is emptied out. The flood that had swept over him has now passed, and he has found steadiness in the very waters that once threatened to drown him. What he had as his base, Tuka says, is at last truly settled and lit up; the realization is complete.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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