The Name, your needless fear
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय देवें खातां घेतलें हातींचें । आलें हें तयाचें थोर भय ॥1॥
ह्मणतां गजरें राम एकसरें । जळती पापें थोरें भयधाकें॥ध्रु.॥
काय खोळंबले हात पाय अंग । नाशिलें हें सांग रूप काय ॥2॥
कोण लोकीं सांगा घातला बाहेरी । ह्मणतां हरि हरि तुका ह्मणे॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What has God taken from your hands by eating? Why this great fear of Him? Saying Rama loudly and all at once, sins burn away in fright. Are your hands, feet, or limbs obstructed? Has your form been destroyed? Into what world have you been cast out? Says Tuka, what happens by saying Hari, Hari?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What did God take from your hand by eating? Why this great fear of Him? Say Rama loudly, all at once, and great sins burn away in their own fright. Are your hands or feet or body held back? Tell me, is your form destroyed? Into what world, tell me, have you been thrown out? Tuka says: what harm comes from saying Hari, Hari?
What it means
Tukaram is shaming away the excuses people make for not taking the Name. He asks what it could possibly cost: God does not snatch anything from your hand, so the fear and reluctance make no sense. Said out loud and wholehearted, the Name Rama makes even great sins flee. Then he checks off the imagined harms one by one, your limbs are not bound, your body not ruined, you are not cast out of any world, and lands on the plain question: what damage could ever come from saying Hari, Hari? The challenge turns the listener back on the empty fear that keeps them silent.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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