The Name, what scripture condemned now honored
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पुराणप्रसिद्ध सीमा । नामतारकमहिमा ॥1॥
मागें जाळी महा दोष । पुढें नाही गर्भवास ॥ध्रु.॥
जें निंदिलें शास्त्रें । वंद्य जालें नाममात्रें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसा । त्रिभुवनीं नामठसा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The saving power of the Name is well-established in the Puranas. It burns away great sins from the past and ensures there is no future birth in the womb. What was condemned by the scriptures has become venerable by the Name alone. Says Tuka, such is the seal of the Name upon all three worlds.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The saving power of the name is set down in the Puranas. It burns away great sins behind you. It leaves no birth in the womb ahead of you. What the scriptures condemned has become worthy of worship by the name alone. Tuka says: such is the seal of the name upon all three worlds.
What it means
Tukaram puts the name above the very texts that rank and condemn. The Puranas attest its saving power, yet the name does something the law could not: it lifts a person the scriptures had cast down and makes that person venerable. So the name overturns the verdict of caste and code, not by argument but by its own force. Past sin is burned, future rebirth cut off. He calls it a seal stamped across all three worlds, an authority nothing can revoke.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
More in this theme →