Experience, weary of liberation itself
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय सांगों तुझ्या चरणांच्या सुखा । अनुभव ठाउका नाहीं तुज ॥१॥
बोलतां हें कैसें वाटे खरेपण । अमृताचे गुण अमृतासी ॥ध्रु.॥
आम्ही एकएका ग्वाही मायपुतें । जाणों तें निरुतें सुख दोघें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आम्हां मोक्षाचा कांटाळा । कां तुम्ही गोपाळा नेणां ऐसें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How can I describe the joy of your feet? Even you do not know that experience. How strange it sounds to speak of it aloud, as if telling nectar about the qualities of nectar. We are like mother and child who bear witness to each other; we both know that intimate joy. Says Tuka, we are wearied by the thought of liberation itself. How is it, O Gopala, that you do not know this?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How can I tell the joy of your feet? You yourself do not know that experience. How can it even sound true to speak of it, like telling nectar about the qualities of nectar? We are mother and child, each a witness for the other. We two know that joy for certain. Tuka says: we are sick of the very thought of liberation. How is it, Gopala, that you do not know this?
What it means
Tukaram describes a joy so complete it cannot be reported, only shared. The sweetness of God's feet is like nectar trying to describe nectar; words double back on themselves. He says even God does not know this taste, because the bliss belongs to the relation between them, witnessed by both like a mother and child who alone know what passes between them. Most strikingly, he says he is tired of the idea of moksha, of liberation, because union in love is already fuller than any release the scriptures promise. He ends by teasing Gopala for not seeming to know the very thing that the devotee knows by heart.
The Necessity of Experience
Why direct experience of God, not mere learning, is the only path.
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