Ecstasy, the whole world lit
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धवळलें जगदाकार । आंधार तो निरसला ॥1॥
लपों जातां नाहीं ठाव । प्रगट पा पसारा ॥ध्रु.॥
खरियाचा दिवस आला । वाढी बोला न पुरे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जिवें साटीं ॥ पडिली मिठी धुरेसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The world has been illumined, and all darkness has vanished. There is no place left to hide; the whole expanse stands revealed. The day of truth has arrived, and no amount of talk can suffice. Says Tuka, with life as the stake, I have seized hold of the very source.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Everything has turned bright, the whole shape of the world. The darkness is wiped away. There is no place left to hide. The whole spread of things stands open. The day of what is true has come. No amount of telling can hold it. Tuka says: with my life as the stake, I have flung my arms around the source.
What it means
Tukaram describes a sudden flooding of light in which the entire world is made luminous and every shadow is gone. With darkness wiped out there is nowhere left to hide, for all things now stand plainly revealed. He calls it the day of truth, an arrival so full that speech cannot keep pace with it. The last line names the cost and the consummation together: staking his life itself, he has seized hold of the very source, an embrace of the origin of everything.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →