The Name, mere ritual is empty
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
झांकूनियां नेत्र काय जपतोसी । जंव नाहीं मानसीं प्रेमभाव ॥1॥
रामनाम ह्मणा उघड मंत्र जाणा । चुकती यातना गर्भवास ॥ध्रु.॥
मंत्र यंत्र संध्या करिसी जडीबुटी । तेणें भूतसृष्टी पावसील ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐक सुंदर मंत्र एक । भवसिंधुतारक रामनाम ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What use is closing your eyes and muttering prayers when there is no love in your mind? Know that the name of Rama is an open mantra. It frees one from the torments of rebirth. If you practice mantras, yantras, rituals, and charms, you will only enter the realm of ghosts. Says Tuka, hear this one beautiful mantra: the name of Rama, which carries one across the ocean of worldly existence.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What are you muttering with your eyes shut, when there is no love in your heart? Say the name of Rama; know it as an open mantra. It cancels the torment of being born again in the womb. If you work mantras, yantras, the daily rites, and herb charms, you will reach only the world of ghosts. Tuka says: hear this one beautiful mantra, the name of Rama, that carries you across the ocean of birth and death.
What it means
Tukaram attacks ritual performed without feeling: shut eyes and mumbled formulas are useless if the heart holds no love. He contrasts the secret, technical machinery of mantras, yantras, and herb charms with the Name, which he calls an open mantra, nothing hidden, available to all. The secret arts, he warns, lead only to a low, ghostly result, while the simple name of Rama ferries one across the whole cycle of rebirth. The sting points at the pattern of empty technique, not at any one person; the test he sets is whether love is actually present.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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