Letting go of mine and yours, true purity
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सरतें माझें तुझें । तरि हें उतरतें ओझें ॥1॥
न लगे सांडावें मांडावें । आहे शुद्ध चि स्वभावें ॥ध्रु.॥
घातला तो आशा। मोहोजाळें गळां फासा ॥2॥
सुखदुःखाचा तो मान । नाहीं दुःखाचा तो शीण ॥3॥
करितां नारायण । एवढें वेचितां वचन ॥4॥
लाभ हानि हे समान । तैसा मान अपमान ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे याचें । नांव सोंवळें साचें ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the distinction of mine and yours dissolves, the burden falls away. Nothing need be taken up or set down; by nature all is already pure. It is longing and the snare of illusion that have placed this noose around our necks. Where there is no pride of pleasure or measure of pain, there is no suffering either. By simply uttering the name Narayana, spending only the coin of speech, gain and loss become equal, as do honor and dishonor. Says Tuka, the name of this state is true purity.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When mine and yours end, the load comes down off you. Nothing must be taken up or set down. By its own nature it is already pure. It is longing that put the noose on us. The snare of attachment is around the neck. Where there is no pride in pleasure, no reckoning of pain, there is no weariness of pain either. Just say Narayana. Spend only that much, the coin of a word. Then gain and loss are the same. Honor and dishonor are the same. Tuka says: the name of this is true purity.
What it means
Tukaram names the one knot and the one release. The weight we carry is the dividing of the world into mine and yours; let that fall and the burden falls with it, for nothing needs to be grasped or renounced when things are already pure by their own nature. What tightens the noose is longing and the snare of attachment, the very mohajala that hangs at our throats. Once you stop totting up pleasure as gain and pain as loss, the ache of suffering loses its grip, and gain and loss, honor and dishonor, come out even. The whole turn costs only one thing, the uttering of the name Narayana; that state, he says, is what truly deserves to be called pure.
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