Gratitude, freed by the Name
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां तुझें नाम गात असें गीतीं । ह्मणोनी मानिती लोक मज ॥1॥
अन्नवस्त्रचिंता नाहीं या पोटाची । वारिली देहाची थोर पीडा ॥ध्रु.॥
सज्जन संबंधी तुटली उपाधी ।रोकडी या बंदीं सुटलोंसें ॥2॥
घ्यावा द्यावा कोणें करावा सायास । गेली आशापाश वारोनियां ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तुज कळेल तें आतां । करा जी अनंता मायबापा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now that I sing Your name in song, the people honor me. The worry for food and clothing and the body's torments have ceased. The entanglements with friends and relatives have been cut away; I have truly been freed from bondage. There is no need now for anyone's toil of giving and taking, for all the snares of desire have been swept away. Says Tuka, do now whatever You see fit, O Ananta, my mother and father.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now that I sing your name in my songs, people honor me. The worry over food and clothing for this belly is gone; the body's great torment has been turned away. The entanglements with friends and relatives have been cut; truly, I have been let out of this prison. There is no need now for anyone's hard bargaining of give and take, for the snares of desire have all been swept away. Tuka says: now do whatever seems right to you, O Ananta, my mother and father.
What it means
Tukaram counts up what the Name has done for him, and the list is mostly about things falling away. The anxious arithmetic of food, clothing, and bodily survival has stopped; so have the binding obligations of kin, which he names a prison he has been released from. With desire's snares swept off, even the endless social ledger of giving and taking no longer holds him. Having been emptied of all his own wanting, he hands the whole of his life back to God, called mother and father, content to let God decide what happens next.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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