The Name, the one essential dharma
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आवडी धरोनी आलेती आकारा । केला हा पसारा याजसाटीं ॥1॥
तें मी तुझें नाम गाईन आवडी । क्षण एक घडी विसंबेना ॥ध्रु.॥
वर्म धरावें हा मुख्यधर्मसार । अवघे प्रकार तयापासीं॥2॥
वेगळ्या विचारें वेगळाले भाव । धरायासी ठाव बहु नाहीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे घालूं इच्छेचिये पोटीं । कवळुनी धाकुटी मूर्ती जीवें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Out of love, You have taken form and created this entire expanse for this very purpose. Therefore, I shall sing Your name with devotion and not let go for even a moment. This is the essential principle and the highest dharma. All other approaches are contained within it. Why hold different opinions and seek separate places? There is no need for so many abodes. Says Tuka, let me embrace that small, dear form within the cave of my heart's longing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Out of love You took form; for this You spread out the whole world. So I will sing Your name with love, and not let go of it for a single moment. Hold to the secret, this is the heart of all dharma; every path is held within it. Why split into separate opinions and separate moods? There is no room for so many resting places. Tuka says: I will set the small, dear form down inside the longing of my heart, and hold it close with my whole life.
What it means
Tukaram reads the entire created world as God taking form out of love, and concludes that the fitting response is to return that love through the Name. He calls the Name the one secret that contains every path, so the many competing doctrines and disciplines need not be chased. Holding many separate teachings is just clutter; there is room for only one resting place. The poem ends by gathering the vast Lord into a small, intimate image cradled inside the heart, where the whole self embraces it.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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