Ecstasy, the festival of love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
या रे नाचों अवघेजण । भावें प्रेमें परिपूर्ण ॥1॥
गाऊं पंढरीचा राणा । क्षेम देऊनिं संतजना ॥ध्रु.॥
सुख साधु सुखासाटीं । नाम हरिनाम बोभाटीं ॥2॥
प्रेमासाटीं तो उदार । देतां नाहीं सानाथोर ॥3॥
पापें पळालीं बापुडीं । काळ झाला देशधडी॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे धन्य काळ । आजि प्रेमाचा सुकाळ ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Come, let us all dance together, full of love and devotion. Let us sing of the King of Pandhari, greeting the saintly ones with joy. For the sake of the happiness of the holy ones, let the name of Hari resound everywhere. He is generous with love, giving without distinction of high or low. Sins have fled like refugees, and death itself has been banished. Says Tuka, blessed is this time. Today there is an abundance of love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Come, all of you, let us dance, full to the brim with love and devotion. Let us sing of the King of Pandhari, and embrace the saintly ones in joy. For the joy of the holy ones, let the name of Hari, Hari, be shouted everywhere. He is generous with love; He gives it without dividing high from low. The poor sins have run away; death itself has been driven from the land. Tuka says: blessed is this hour. Today there is a flood of love.
What it means
Tukaram bursts into a communal song of joy and calls everyone into the dance. The worship here is shared and bodily: dancing, singing of the King of Pandhari, embracing the saints, shouting the name of Hari aloud. He stresses that God's love is poured out generously and without rank, given alike to high and low. In the overflow of that love the enemies flee, sins run off like frightened refugees and death itself is banished from the land. The poem names the present moment as blessed, a rare hour when love is not scarce but flooding, and the whole tone is one of grateful, contagious celebration.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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