Surrender, the account is cleared
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
येणें जाला तुमचे पोतडीचा झाडा । केलासी उघडा पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
भरूनियां घरीं राहिलों वाखती । आपुली नििंश्चती आपल्यापें ॥ध्रु.॥
आतां काय उरी उरली ते सांगा । आणिलेति जगाचिये साक्षी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कोठें पाहोंजासी आतां । माझी जाली सत्ता तुह्मांवरि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By this You have cleared the account of Your own bundle, O Panduranga, and laid everything open. Having filled the house, I rest in contentment, with my own certainty restored to me. Now tell me what remains, for You have brought the whole world as witness. Says Tuka, where will You look now? My authority has extended over You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By this You have emptied out Your bundle, Panduranga. You have laid it all open. I have filled my house and I sit content. My own certainty is back in my hands. Now tell me, what is left? You have brought the whole world to witness it. Tuka says: where will You look now? My claim has come to hold over You.
What it means
Tukaram turns the language of debt and accounting into a lover's playful triumph. He says God has been opened up like a bag turned inside out, holding nothing back, and so the devotee's house is full and his old peace of mind restored. The poem's bold claim is in the last line: having given himself wholly, Tuka now says his authority extends over God, with the whole world as witness. This is the logic of total surrender turning into total intimacy: the one who keeps nothing back gains a claim on the one he gave himself to.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
More in this theme →