Ecstasy, bliss meeting bliss
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सुख सुखा भेटे । मग तोडिल्या न तुटे ॥1॥
रविरिश्मकळा । नये घालितां पैं डोळां ॥ध्रु.॥
दुरि तें जवळी । स्नेहें आकाशा कवळी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चित्त । माझें पायीं अखंडित॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When bliss meets bliss, the bond cannot be broken. The sun's radiance cannot be captured in the eyes. What seemed distant draws near; love embraces the very sky. Says Tuka, my mind rests unbroken at His feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When bliss meets bliss, the bond cannot be cut. The sun's blaze cannot be caught and held in the eye. What was far comes near; love takes the whole sky in its arms. Tuka says: my mind rests unbroken at His feet.
What it means
Tukaram tries to say what union feels like and admits it cannot be measured by ordinary means. When his own bliss meets God's bliss, the two fuse into a bond that no force can sever. Like the sun's light, which the eye cannot seize and contain, this joy is too vast to be grasped from outside. In that state the distance collapses, what was far is suddenly near, and love grows large enough to embrace the whole sky. The plain fact underneath all the images is the last line: his mind now rests at God's feet without a break.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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