Ecstasy, sheltered at the feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जडलों तों आतां पायीं । होऊं काई वेगळा ॥1॥
तुम्हीं संतीं कृपा केली । गंगे चाली ओघाची ॥ध्रु.॥
सांभािळलों मायबापा । केलों तापावेगळा ॥2॥
वोरसें या जीव धाला । तुका ठेला मौन्य चि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have become fixed at Your feet now. How could I ever be separate? You saints have shown me grace, and it flows like the current of the Ganga. I have been sheltered, O mother and father, and made free from all suffering. Says Tuka, my jiva is satisfied by this inheritance, and I remain in silence.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now I am fixed at your feet. How could I ever be separate again? You saints have shown me grace, and it flows like the current of the Ganga. You sheltered me, O mother and father. You set me free of all my burning. My soul is filled by this inheritance. Tuka says: and I am left in silence.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the far side of his longing, now held fast at God's feet and unable to imagine separation. He credits the saints, whose grace has come to him with the unstoppable flow of the Ganga, and addresses God as his mother and father, the shelter that freed him from all his inner burning. The grace feels like an inheritance that fully satisfies the soul. The poem ends in the truest sign of fulfillment: words run out, and Tuka is left in silence.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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