Testimony, rescued from despair
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विचारिलें आधीं आपुल्या मानसीं । वांचों येथें कैसीं कोण्या द्वारें ॥1॥
तंव जाला साहए हृदयनिवासी । बुिद्ध दिली ऐसी नास नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
उद्वेगाचे होतों पडिलों समुद्रीं । कोण रीती तरी पाविजेल ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दुःखें आला आयुर्भाव । जाला बहु जीव कासावीस ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I first deliberated within my own mind: how shall I survive here and by what means? Then the One who dwells within came to my aid and gave me the wisdom that leads beyond destruction. I had fallen into an ocean of despair, wondering how I could ever cross. Says Tuka, suffering had consumed my lifespan, and my jiva was in utter anguish.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
First I asked inside my own mind: how am I to survive here, by what door? Then the One who lives in the heart came to help me. He gave me wisdom that does not perish. I had fallen into an ocean of despair. How would I ever cross it? Tuka says: suffering had eaten my years. My very life was in anguish.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one who has come out the far side of despair. He had reasoned to a dead end, asking how a person could survive at all and by what means, and found no door. The rescue did not come from his own thinking but from the One who dwells in the heart, who gave a wisdom that cannot be destroyed. He names the depth he was in plainly: an ocean of despair, years devoured by suffering, the soul in agony. The poem is a witness that the help came from within when his own deliberation had run out.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
More in this theme →