The Name, free and open to all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाम घेतां न लगे मोल । नाममंत्र नाहीं खोल ॥1॥
दों अक्षरांचें काम । उच्चारावें राम राम ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं वर्णाधमयाती। नामीं अवघीं चि सरतीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाम । चैतन्य निजधाम॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Taking the Name costs nothing; the Name-mantra is not obscure. It is the work of just two syllables: say Rama, Rama. There is no high or low station before the Name; all are equal in it. Says Tuka, the Name is pure consciousness, the true abode.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Taking the name costs nothing. The name-mantra is not hidden or hard. It is the work of just two syllables: say Rama, Rama. Before the name there is no high birth and no low one; in it, all are equal, all pass through. Tuka says: the name is pure consciousness, the true home.
What it means
Tukaram answers the world's gatekeeping with the cheapness of the name. It asks no fee, no secret initiation, no scholarship; two syllables are the whole practice. Then he names the stake plainly: before the name, the ranks of birth, high and low, simply do not hold. Everyone enters equally. And the name is not a mere sound pointing elsewhere; he calls it pure consciousness itself, the true abode, so that to take the name is already to stand where God lives.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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