The Name, the one task of a life
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मां हें चि काम । वाचे गाऊं तुझें नाम ॥1॥
आयुष्य मोलाची हे घडी । धरूं पायांची आवडी ॥ध्रु.॥
अमृताची खाणी । याचे ठायीं वेचूं वाणी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे पांडुरंगा । माझ्या जिवाच्या जिवलगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Our only task is to sing Your name. Each moment of life is precious. Let us hold fast to the love of Your feet. Your name is a mine of nectar. Let me spend my speech only there. Says Tuka, O Panduranga, O life of my life.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This alone is our work: to sing Your name with the tongue. Each moment of this life is precious. Let us hold to the love of Your feet. Your name is a mine of nectar. Let me spend my speech only there. Tuka says: O Panduranga, O life of my life.
What it means
Tukaram names a single purpose for a whole human life: to sing God's name aloud. Because each passing moment is too valuable to waste, he wants none of it spent elsewhere, only in love for God's feet. He calls the Name a mine of nectar, an inexhaustible source of sweetness, and resolves to spend all his speech digging there and nowhere else. The closing address, life of my life, makes plain that this is not duty but love: God is the very life within his life.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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