Ecstasy, beyond sin and merit
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दाटे कंठ लागे डोिळयां पाझर । गुणाची अपार वृिष्ट वरी ॥1॥
तेणें सुखें छंदें घेईन सोंहळा । होऊनि निराळा पापपुण्यां॥ध्रु.॥
तुझ्या मोहें पडो मागील विसर । आलापें सुस्वर करिन कंठ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें पाहिजे सौरस । तुह्मांविण रस गोड नव्हे॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My throat chokes and tears stream from my eyes; an endless rain of Your virtues pours from above. In that joy and devotion, I shall take my celebration, having become free of both sin and merit. May Your enchantment make me forget all that came before. I shall make my throat sing sweetly in melodious verse. Says Tuka, what I need here is intimacy. Without You, no sweetness is truly sweet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My throat chokes, tears stream from my eyes. An endless rain of your virtues pours down on me. In that joy I will take up the festival, having become free of both sin and merit. Let your love make me forget all that came before. I will tune my throat and sing you sweetly. Tuka says: what I need here is closeness. Without you, no sweetness is sweet.
What it means
Tukaram is caught in the bodily signs of devotional rapture: choked throat, streaming tears, the felt downpour of God's qualities. In that flood he speaks of rising past both sin and merit, not by license but because absorption in God leaves the old ledger of good and bad deeds behind. He prays for God's love to wash away all his former memory and to turn his throat into an instrument of sweet song. The poem ends by naming what alone makes any of this real: intimacy with God, for apart from God no pleasure has any sweetness at all.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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