The Name as weapon, the inner war
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रात्री दिवस आह्मां युद्धाचा प्रसंग । अंतर्बाहए जग आणि मन ॥1॥
जीवा ही आगोज पडती आघात । येऊनियां नित्य नित्य करी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुझ्या नामाचिया बळें । अवघीयांचें काळें केलें तोंड ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Day and night we face the battle within and without: the world and the mind. Blows strike even the very jiva, coming again and again, without ceasing. Says Tuka, by the strength of Your name, we have blackened the faces of all our enemies.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Day and night we are in the thick of battle, within and without: the world, and the mind. Blows fall even on the very life in us, striking again and again, without stopping. Tuka says: by the strength of Your name, we have blackened the faces of all of them.
What it means
Tukaram describes the spiritual life as constant war, fought on two fronts at once: the outer world and the inner mind. The attacks are relentless and reach all the way down to the living soul, coming again and again with no pause. Against this he names his one weapon, the Name of God, and says its strength has put every assailant to shame, blackening their faces in defeat. The poem points the listener inward: the hardest enemy is the mind, and the answer is not to fight it with the mind but to hold the Name.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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