The Name, a free shop
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रामनाम हा चि मांडिला दुकान । आहे वानोवाण घ्यारे कोणी ॥1॥
नका कोणी करूं घेता रे आळस । वांटितों तुह्मांस फुकाचें हें ॥ध्रु.॥
संचितासारिखे पडे त्याच्या हाता । फारसें मागतां तरी न ये ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मीं सांठविलें सार । उरलिया थार विचारितां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have set up a shop of Rama's Name. There are goods in plenty; come, take what you will. Let no one be lazy about taking them; I am distributing this free of charge. Each receives according to their merit; if you ask for too much, it cannot be given. Says Tuka, we have stored the essence. What remains, upon examination, is of the highest quality.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have set up a shop, and the only goods are the Name of Rama. There is plenty; come, anyone, take it. Do not be lazy about taking. I am giving it away for free. Each one receives according to what they have stored up; ask for too much and it will not come. Tuka says: I have laid in the essence. Look it over: what is left is the best.
What it means
Tukaram casts himself as a shopkeeper whose single stock is the Name of Rama, and he is not selling it but giving it away. The only barrier is the customer's own sloth in coming to take. There is one honest condition: what each person can receive matches the merit they bring, so greed that demands more than it is ready for goes unfilled. The point is that the supply itself is endless and unpriced; the limit lies in us, not in him. And the essence he has stored, the Name, is offered as the finest thing on the shelf.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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