The Name, ever on the lips
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुखीं विठ्ठलाचें नाम । मग कैचा भवभ्रम ॥1॥
चालतां बोलतां खातां । जेवितां निद्रा करितां ॥ध्रु.॥
सुखें असों संसारीं । मग जवळी च हरि ॥2॥
मुक्तिवरील भक्ति जाण । अखंड मुखीं नारायण ॥3॥
मग देवभक्त जाला । तुका तुकीं उतरला ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
With Vitthal's name on the tongue, where is there room for worldly delusion? Walking, talking, eating, feasting, or sleeping, keep His name always. Dwell happily in the world, and Hari will be right beside you. Devotion that surpasses even liberation means keeping Narayana unbroken on the lips. Then the devotee has become one with God. Says Tuka, he has passed the final test.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
With Vitthal's name in the mouth, where is the muddle of this world? While walking, talking, eating, feasting, or sleeping, keep it. Live happily in the world, and then Hari is right beside you. Know this: the devotion that is higher than liberation is to keep Narayana unbroken in the mouth. Then one has become God's devotee. Tuka says: Tuka has weighed true on the scale.
What it means
Tukaram makes the practice almost absurdly simple: keep Vitthal's name in the mouth and the confusion of worldly life loses its grip. He insists this is not a withdrawal from ordinary life but something carried right through it, through every act from eating to sleeping. He even ranks it: this unbroken remembrance is worth more than liberation itself, because it makes God present at your side instead of merely freeing you. The closing image is a scale; Tuka has been weighed and found true, the test of a real devotee passed by this one constant thing.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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