Experience, the birth fulfilled
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां येथें जाली जीवासवेंसाटी । होतें तैसें पोटीं फळ आलें ॥1॥
आतां धरिले ते नो सोडीं चरण । सांपडलें धन निजठेवा ॥ध्रु.॥
आतां हा अळस असो परता दुरी । नेदावी तें उरी उरों कांहीं ॥2॥
आतां याचा मज न व्हावा विसर । भरोनि अंतर राहों रूप ॥3॥
आतां लोकलाज नयो येथें आड । बहु जालें गोड ब्रह्मरस ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां जन्म हा सफळ । अंतरीं गोपाळ िस्थरावला ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now the bond with the jiva has been forged, and what was within has borne its fruit. I shall not release these feet that I have seized; the treasure of the true Self has been found. Now let all laziness stay far away; let nothing remain held back. Now let me never forget Him; let His form fill every corner of my being. Now let social shame not come in the way, for the nectar of Brahman has become exceedingly sweet. Says Tuka, this birth is now fulfilled, for Gopala has settled firmly within.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now a bond has been forged with my whole life, and what was within me has borne its fruit. Now I will not let go of these feet I have seized; the treasure of my own true Self is found. Now let all laziness stay far off; let nothing be held back. Now let me never forget him; let his form fill every corner of me. Now let the shame of what people say not get in the way, for the nectar of Brahman has grown so sweet. Tuka says: now this birth is fulfilled, for Gopala has settled firm within.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from arrival, not from longing: the bond is made and the inner work has borne fruit. He grips God's feet and will not release them, naming what he has found the treasure of his own true Self. Then he sets the terms of how he will live it out: no laziness, nothing held back, never a moment of forgetting, and his whole being filled with God's form. He brushes aside the fear of public shame, because the taste of Brahman has become too sweet to trade for respectability. The verse ends in completion: with Gopala settled firmly inside, this human birth has reached its whole purpose.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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