The Name, the precious moment
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां आह्मां हें चि काम । वाचे स्मरूं रामराम ॥1॥
ऐसी मोलाची हे घडी । धरूं पायांची आवडी ॥ध्रु.॥
अमृताची खाणी । तये ठायीं वेचूं वाणी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे पांडुरंगा । माझ्या जीवींच्या जिवलगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now this alone is my work: to remember Rama, Rama with my tongue. This moment is precious; let me hold fast to my love for His feet. The tongue is a mine of nectar; let me spend my speech only there. Says Tuka, O Panduranga, O dearest beloved of my jiva.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now this alone is my work: with my tongue to remember Rama, Rama. This moment is precious; let me hold to my love for the feet. The tongue is a mine of nectar; there let me spend my speech. Tuka says: O Panduranga, dearest beloved of my life.
What it means
Tukaram reduces his entire occupation to one task, the tongue's repetition of Rama's name. He treats the present moment as something costly and not to be squandered, to be filled instead with love for the Lord's feet. The tongue, he says, is a mine of nectar; spent on the Name it yields what is sweetest, so he will spend his speech nowhere else. The poem closes by naming the one it is addressed to, Panduranga, called the most beloved of his very life, so that all this remembering is plainly an act of love.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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