Longing, holding the Name at the throat
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझिया विनोदें आह्मांसी मरण । सोसियेला सीण बहु फेरे ॥1॥
आतां आपणें चि येसी तें करीन । नाम हें धरीन तुझें कंठीं ॥ध्रु.॥
वियोगें चि आलों उसंतीत वनें । संकल्प हे मनें वाहोनियां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वर्म सांपडलें सोपें । गोवियेलों पापें पुण्यें होतों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By Your playfulness I have endured death, suffering through many rounds of birth. Now I will do what it takes on my own; I will hold Your name at my throat. Wandering through forests of separation, I carried these longings in my mind. Says Tuka, the secret turned out to be simple: I was entangled by both sin and merit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By Your play I have met death. I have borne the strain through many rounds of birth. Now I will do for myself what must be done. I will hold Your name at my throat. Through separation I came wandering into empty forests. I carried these longings in my mind. Tuka says: the secret turned out to be simple. I was tangled up by sin and merit both.
What it means
Tukaram looks back over a long ordeal of birth and death and resolves to take hold of the one remedy. He charges that the Lord's play has cost him death many times over, and he decides he will now do his own part: keep the divine Name always at his throat. The separation drove him to wander as if through empty forests, carrying his longing. The simple secret he finally found is that both sin and merit had bound him; even good karma is a tie, and only the Name, not the ledger of deeds, sets him free.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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