The Name, refuge of the fallen
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझें नाम माझे मुखी असो देवा । विनवितों राघवा दास तुझा ॥1॥
तुझ्या नामबळें तरले पतित । ह्मणोनि माझें चित्त तुझे पायीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुझें नाम हें सादर । गातां निरंतर सुख वाटे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
May Your Name ever be on my lips, O God. I beseech You, O Raghava; I am Your servant. By the power of Your Name, wrongdoers have been delivered. Therefore my chitta rests at Your feet. Says Tuka, singing Your Name continuously brings me such joy.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let Your Name be always on my lips, God. I beg You, Raghava; I am Your servant. By the power of Your Name the fallen have been carried across. So my heart rests at Your feet. Tuka says: when I sing Your Name without stopping, joy keeps rising in me.
What it means
Tukaram asks for one steady gift: that God's Name never leave his mouth. He grounds the request in what the Name has already done, that even the fallen and the wrongdoing have been ferried across by its power, and that is exactly why he trusts it and lays his heart at God's feet. The Name is offered here as the refuge that does not check your record first. The poem closes on the felt result: singing it without break brings a joy that does not run dry, so the practice is its own reward, not only a means to rescue.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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