Ecstasy, the ending of longing
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मागें चिंता होती आस । केला नास या काळें ॥1॥
तुह्मी आह्मां उदासीन । भिन्नाभिन्न वारिलें ॥ध्रु.॥
मोहजाळें दुःख वाढे । ओढे ओढे त्यास तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कोण देवा । आतां हेवा वाढवी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Before, there was worry and longing; this present time has destroyed them. You have made me indifferent, dissolving all separation between us. The net of delusion only increases sorrow; it pulls those caught in it deeper still. Says Tuka, O God, who now will increase my longing?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Before, there was worry. There was wanting. This time has destroyed them. You have made me indifferent. You have wiped out the line between us, between same and separate. The net of delusion only grows the sorrow; it drags the one caught in it deeper and deeper. Tuka says: O God, who is left now to make my longing grow?
What it means
Tukaram reports a state where the old ache is gone. The worry and craving that used to drive him have been destroyed in this present moment; God has emptied him of restless wanting and dissolved the very distinction between self and God, same and separate. Against this he sets the alternative he has escaped: the net of attachment, which never satisfies but only deepens grief and pulls a person further down. His closing question is the voice of someone who has nothing left to crave: now that the longing itself has been fulfilled, who could there be to revive it?
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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