Ecstasy, what is mine returns clean
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझें माझ्या हाता आलें । आतां भलें सकळ ॥1॥
काशासाटीं विषम थारा । तो अंतरा विटाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
जालीं तया दुःखें तुटी । मागिल पोटीं नसावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे शुद्धकुळ । तेथें मळ काशाचा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What is mine has come into my own hands; now all is well. Why dwell in the inhospitable shelter of impurity and inner defilement? Let those sufferings be cut away; let nothing of the past remain in the belly. Says Tuka, in a pure lineage, what place is there for stain?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is mine has come into my own hands. Now all is well. Why dwell in the unsteady shelter of impurity? That is a stain on the heart. Let those sorrows be cut off. Nothing of the past should stay in the belly. Tuka says: where the lineage is pure, what stain can there be?
What it means
Tukaram says he has recovered what was always his own, and with that recovery everything is set right. He questions why anyone would go on lodging in the shaky refuge of impurity, since that residence is itself a defilement of the heart. He calls for a clean break: the old sufferings cut away, with nothing of the past left held inside. The closing line lands the assurance: once the lineage is pure, once one belongs truly to God, there is no place left for any stain to take hold.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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