Renunciation, killing the will
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ऐसा घेई कां रे संन्यास । करीं संकल्पाचा नास॥1॥
मग तूं राहें भलते ठायीं । जनीं वनीं खाटे भोई ॥ध्रु.॥
तोडीं जाणिवेची कळा । होई वृत्तीसी वेगळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणणे नभा । होई आणुचा ही गाभा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Take sannyasa in this way: destroy all mental intention. Then you may dwell anywhere at all, in the crowd or in the wilderness, on a cot or on the bare ground. Cut through the cleverness of self-awareness and become free of all mental modification. Says Tuka, become the very essence of the sky, even finer than the atom.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why not take up sannyasa like this: destroy all your willing, all your intention. Then you can live anywhere at all, in the crowd or in the forest, on a cot or on the bare ground. Cut through the cleverness of self-awareness. Become free of every movement of the mind. Tuka says: become the sky itself, finer even than the atom.
What it means
Tukaram redefines renunciation as inward, not outward. The real sannyasa is not robes or a forest hut but the destruction of saṃkalpa, the willing and scheming that drives the mind. Once that is gone, place no longer matters: a crowd or a wilderness, a bed or bare earth, all are the same. He pushes past even the subtle pride of being self-aware, the cleverness that watches itself, and asks for freedom from every mental movement. The aim is to become spacious as the sky, yet subtler than the smallest atom, with nothing of the ego left to occupy room.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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