Ecstasy, love ever new
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आवडीची न पुरे धणी । प्रीत मनीं बैसली ॥1॥
नित्य नवा कळवळा । मायबाळामध्यें तों ॥ध्रु.॥
सुख सुखा भेटों आलें । होय वाल्हें पोटींचे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ब्रह्मानंदें । संतवृंदें चरणापें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The fulfillment of love's longing is never complete, for affection has settled deep in the mind. Between mother and child there is ever-new tenderness. Joy has come to meet joy, and the beloved of the mind grows dear. Says Tuka, in the bliss of Brahman, at the feet of the assembly of saints.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Love's longing is never filled to the brim; the love has settled deep in my mind. The tenderness is new every day, like the bond between mother and child. Joy has come to meet joy, and the one my heart loves grows dear. Tuka says: in the bliss of Brahman, at the feet of the gathered saints.
What it means
Tukaram describes a love that grows rather than fades. The longing is never finally satisfied, because affection has taken root deep in his mind and renews itself daily, as fresh as a mother's tenderness for her child. He pictures joy meeting joy, the beloved growing ever dearer in the meeting. The poem closes by locating all this bliss where he wants to be: in the joy of Brahman, at the feet of the assembled saints, naming their company as the very place this ecstasy lives.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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