राम
गाथा 458Ecstasy and Joy

Ecstasy, one coin severs the world

Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram

मराठी मूळ

सौरी सुर जालें दुर डौर घेतला हातीं । माया मोह सांडवलें तीही लोकीं जालें सरती ॥१॥

चाल विठाबाई अवघी पांज देई । न धरीं गुज कांहीं वाळवंटीं सांपडतां ॥ध्रु.॥

हिंडोनि चौर्यांीशी घरें आलें तुझ्या दारा । एक्या रुक्यासाठीं आंचवलें संसारा ॥२॥

लाज मेली शंका गेली नाचों महाद्वारीं । भ्रांति सावलें फिटोनि गेलें आतां कैची उरी ॥३॥

जालें भांडी जगा सांडी नाहीं भीड चाड । घालीन चरणीं मिठी पुरविन जीविंचें तें कोड ॥४॥

तुका म्हणे रुका करी संसारतुटी । आतां तुम्हां आम्हां कैसी जाली जीवे साटीं ॥५॥

Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)

English Translation

The minstrel-song is done, the tune is cast away, and the drum is in hand. Attachment and delusion have fallen away, and the conquest has spread through all three worlds. Come, Vithabai, give us the full feast. I hold back nothing when I find you on the open sands of the riverbank. Having wandered through eighty-four hundred thousand houses, I have come at last to your door, and for the sake of one coin I have renounced the entire world. Shame is dead, doubt is gone; let me dance at the great gate. Illusion and its shadow have been stripped away; no remnant remains. I have become a quarreler with the world, abandoned all constraint, and thrown aside all timidity. I will clasp your feet and fulfill the longing of my heart. Says Tuka, one small coin severs the bonds of worldly life; now we have traded our very lives for each other.

We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.

In Plain Words

The minstrel-song is done, the tune set aside, the drum is in my hand. Maya and delusion have been made to fall away, and I have prevailed in all three worlds. Come, Vithabai, lay out the whole feast. I hold nothing back now that I have caught you here on the open sands. I have wandered through eighty-four lakh houses, and at last I have come to your door. For the sake of one coin I have given up the whole world. Shame is dead, doubt is gone; let me dance at the great gate. Illusion and its shadow have been wiped away; what is left over now? I have become a quarreler with the world; I have dropped all timidity, all anxious holding-back. I will clasp your feet and fill the longing of my heart. Tuka says: one small coin cuts the bonds of worldly life. Now you and I have traded our very lives for each other.

What it means

This is a song of arrival, sung at the moment the seeking is over and the drum is in hand. Tukaram declares that maya and delusion have fallen away and he has won through all three worlds, so he can call boldly on Vithabai, Vithoba as mother, to spread the whole feast. The long wandering through eighty-four lakh births has ended at her door, and for one small coin, the single act of total surrender, he has let go of the entire world. Shame, doubt, and timidity are dead, so he can dance shamelessly at the temple gate and clasp God's feet. The last line names the exchange at the heart of it: the bond of worldly life is cut, and devotee and Lord have traded their very lives for each other.

आनंद

Ecstasy and Joy

Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.

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