Saints, the pilgrim's call
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वंदूं चरणरज सेवूं उष्टावळी । पूर्वकर्मा होळी करुनी सांडूं ॥१॥
अमुप हे गांठीं बांधूं भांडवल । अनाथा विठ्ठल आम्हां जोगा ॥ध्रु.॥
अवघे होती लाभ एका या चिंतनें । नामसंकीर्तनें गोविंदाच्या ॥२॥
जन्ममरणाच्या खुंटतील खेपा । होईल हा सोपा सिद्ध पंथ ॥३॥
गेले पुढें त्यांचा शोधीत मारग । चला जाऊं माग घेत आम्ही ॥४॥
तुका म्हणे घालूं जीवपणा चिरा । जाऊं त्या माहेरा निजाचिया ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let us bow to the dust of holy feet and eat their leftover scraps; let us make a bonfire of all past karma and leave it behind. This priceless capital we tie in the knot of our cloth; Vitthal of the destitute is the God who befits us. All gains come from this one contemplation, from singing the name of Govinda. The rounds of birth and death will cease, and the proven path will become easy. Those who went before us blazed the trail; come, let us follow their tracks. Says Tuka, let us rend the cloth of jiva-hood and go to the mother's home of our own true nature.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let us bow to the dust of the saints' feet and gladly eat the scraps they leave; let us make a bonfire of all our past deeds and walk away from it. This is priceless wealth, and we tie it in the knot of our cloth: Vitthal, God of the destitute, is the Lord who suits us. Every gain comes from this one thing, holding him in mind and singing the name of Govinda. The journeys of birth and death will stop, and the proven path will turn easy. Those who went ahead have marked the trail; come, let us follow their footprints. Tuka says: let us tear off this sense of being a separate self and go home, to the mother-home of our own true nature.
What it means
A pilgrim's call to the road. Tukaram gathers the whole method into a few moves: revere the saints, even to eating their leftovers; burn off the past; carry the one real treasure, God's name, tied close like a trader's purse. He names his God deliberately, Vitthal of the destitute, the Lord fit for the poor and the lowly. The promise is the end of the round of birth and death, and the reassurance is that the path is not untried; the saints ahead have already blazed it. The last image is homecoming: to drop the feeling of being a separate self is to return to one's own true nature, like a married woman going home to her mother.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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