Ecstasy beyond telling, the past cut off
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गोड लागे परी सांगतां चि न ये । बैसे मिठी सये आवडीची ॥१॥
वेधलें वो येणें श्रीरंगरंगें । मीमाजी अंगें हारपलीं ॥ध्रु.॥
परते चि ना दृष्टी बैसली ते ठायीं । विसावोनि पायीं ठेलें मन ॥२॥
तुकयाच्या स्वामीसवें जाली भेटी । तेव्हां जाली तुटी मागिल्यांची ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It tastes sweet, and yet it cannot be described. An embrace of pure love settles in, the embrace of a beloved companion. I have been pierced by the splendor of Shrirang; all sense of "I" and "mine" has vanished. My gaze will not turn back; it has settled where it settled, and my mind has come to rest at his feet. Says Tuka, from the moment I met my Lord, all ties with the past were cut.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
It tastes sweet, and yet it cannot be told. An embrace of love settles in, the embrace of a dear companion. I have been pierced through by the splendor of Shrirang; all sense of I and mine has vanished. My gaze will not turn back; it has stayed where it came to rest, and my mind has lain down at his feet. Tuka says: from the moment I met my Lord, all ties with the past were cut.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from inside the experience of union, where the sweetness is real but words give out. The splendor of God has pierced him so completely that the sense of I and mine simply disappears, and his gaze and mind no longer turn back toward anything else. This is not a feeling he can describe to others; it is a resting place his attention has settled into for good. The closing line names the cost and the gift together: meeting the Lord severed every tie to the old life, and that severing is what the ecstasy amounts to.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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