The sweet theft, plundered by God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हती भेटी तों चि बरें । होतां चोरें नाडिलें ॥1॥
अवाघियांचा केला झाडा । रिता वाडा खोंकर ॥ध्रु.॥
चिंतनांचें मूळ चित्त । नेलें वित्त हरूनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मूळा आलें । होतें केलें तैसें चि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Before we met, all was well. But once the thief appeared, I was utterly robbed. Everything was swept clean; the house stands empty and hollow. The mind, which is the root of all contemplation, has been plundered of its wealth. Says Tuka, it has come full circle; what was done has returned to its origin.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Before we met, things were fine. Once the thief came, I was robbed clean. He swept everything away. The house stands empty and bare. The mind is the root of all my thinking. He carried off its wealth. Tuka says: it has come full circle. What was done has gone back to where it began.
What it means
Tukaram turns the meeting with God into a robbery, and he means it as the best thing that could happen. Before the meeting he was comfortable, holding his own; then the thief came and stripped the house bare. What was stolen is named precisely: the mind, the root of all his thinking, looted of the wealth it hoarded. The frame the poem leaves implied is that this emptying is the point, not the loss it looks like. Everything has returned to its source, the self handed back to the One it came from, and the empty house is what is left when there is nothing of one's own to cling to.
The Necessity of Experience
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