Renunciation, the whole price of Hari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सर्वस्वा मुकावें तेणें हरीसी जिंकावें । अर्थ प्राण जीवें देहत्याग ॥1॥
मोह ममता माया चाड नाहीं चिंता । विषयकंदुवेथा जाळूनियां ॥ध्रु.॥
लोकलज्जा दंभ आणि अहंकार । करूनि मत्सर देशधडी ॥2॥
शांति क्षमा दया सखिया विनउनी । मूळ चक्रपाणी धाडी त्यांसी ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे याती अक्षरें अभिमान । सांडोनिया शरण रिघें संतां ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
To win Hari, one must renounce everything, offering wealth, life-breath, and body itself. Burn away attachment, possessiveness, illusion, and the affliction of sense-pleasures. Cast out worldly shame, pretense, and ego, and banish envy far away. Says Tuka, abandon pride in caste and learning, and take refuge at the feet of the saints.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
To win Hari you must give up everything. Lay down your wealth, your breath, your very body. Burn off attachment, possessiveness, illusion; let no craving, no worry remain. Burn the fever of sense-pleasures. Cast out fear of what people will think, cast out show, cast out the ego. Drive envy out of the country. Call gently on your friends, peace and patience and mercy, and let the Lord himself send them to you. Tuka says: throw away your pride in birth and your pride in learning, and go take refuge in the saints.
What it means
Tukaram names what it actually costs to win God, and refuses to discount it. The list is total: wealth, breath, body, and then the inner holdings, attachment, possessiveness, the fever of the senses, and the fear of looking bad in front of others. He treats pride of caste and pride of learning as the last two coins to surrender, not as credentials that help. In their place he asks for peace, patience, and mercy as companions, and says the Lord himself sends these. The poem ends not at the feet of God directly but at the feet of the saints, who are the door.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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