Ecstasy, no night, no separation
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हारपोनि गेली निशी । निद्रा कैसी न देखों ॥1॥
नारायणीं वसलें घर । निरंतर आनंद ॥ध्रु.॥
अवघा रुधविला ठाव। नेला वाव मी माझें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एके ठावीं । असूं नाहीं सीनाभिन्न ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The night has vanished and disappeared. Sleep is nowhere to be seen. Narayana has made His home within, and there is unbroken joy. Every space has been filled by Him, and the sense of I and mine has been taken away. Says Tuka, in that one place we remain, never apart or separate.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The night has dissolved and gone. Where is sleep? I do not see it. My house is settled in Narayana. There is unbroken joy. Every space is filled by him. The I and the mine have been carried off. Tuka says: in that one place we stay. There is no being apart, no separation.
What it means
Tukaram describes a state where the ordinary marks of unawareness have fallen away: the night has dissolved and sleep cannot be found, signs that he is fully awake within. His whole dwelling now rests in Narayana, and the joy of it is unbroken. As God fills every space, the sense of I and mine is carried off, which is the quiet center of the poem. What remains is one shared place with no distance in it. The closing line states the nondual fruit directly: there is no being apart, no separation between the devotee and God.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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