Surrender, freed from birth and death
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जन्ममरणांची विसरलों चिंता । तूं माझा अनंता मायबाप ॥1॥
होतील ते डोळां पाहेन प्रकार । भय आणि भार निरसलीं ॥ध्रु.॥
लिगाडाचें मूळ होतीं पंच भूतें । त्यांचें यां पुरतें विभागिलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जाला प्रपंच पारिखा । जिवासी तूं सखा पांडुरंगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have forgotten the anxiety of birth and death, for You are my mother and father, O Ananta. Whatever comes before my eyes, I shall witness it calmly; fear and burden have been dissolved. The root of all entanglement was the five elements; what belongs to them has been returned to them. Says Tuka, worldly life has become something foreign; You alone are the companion of my soul, O Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have forgotten the fear of birth and death, for You are my mother and father, O Ananta. Whatever comes before my eyes, I will simply watch it; fear and burden are gone. The root of all entanglement was the five elements; what is theirs has been given back to them in full. Tuka says: worldly life has become a stranger to me; You alone are the friend of my soul, O Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the peace of total trust. Once he takes God as mother and father, the dread of birth and death drops away, and he can simply watch whatever life brings without fear or weight. He explains the freedom: the body and its world were only the five elements, and he has handed back to them what was always theirs, so nothing in this realm still binds him. With worldly life now a stranger, the only real relationship left is with God, the one true companion of his soul. It is the calm of someone who has set down the whole burden of the self.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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