Devotion, the body's last sweet hour
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गळित जाली काया । हें चि लळित पंढरिराया ॥१॥
आलें अवसानापासीं । रूप राहिलें मानसीं ॥ध्रु.॥
वाइला कळस । तेथें स्थिरावला रस ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे गोड जालें । नारायणीं पोट धालें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The body has grown frail, and this itself is the final play, O Lord of Pandhari. Life has come to its closing hour, yet your form remains settled in my heart. The pinnacle has been raised, and there the essence has become still. Says Tuka, it has all turned sweet; my belly is filled with Narayana.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The body has worn away. This itself is the final play, Lord of Pandhari. It has come to the last breath, yet your form stays settled in my mind. The pinnacle has been raised, and there the sweetness has come to rest. Tuka says: it has all turned sweet; my belly is filled with Narayana.
What it means
Tukaram looks on his own dying body and finds it not a loss but the closing scene of a play. As the flesh wears away and the last breath nears, what matters is that God's form stays fixed in his mind and does not waver. He uses the image of a temple finished and its crowning pinnacle raised: the work is complete, and the sweet essence of devotion has come to rest at the top. So death arrives as fulfillment, not fear. His belly is filled with Narayana, meaning he is wholly satisfied by God, and at the end everything has turned to sweetness.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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