The Name, the promise that holds
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दोष पळती कीर्तनें । तुझ्या नामें संकीर्तनें ॥1॥
हें कां करूं आदरिलें । खोटें वचन आपुलें ॥ध्रु.॥
तुह्मी पापा भीतां । आह्मां उपजावया चिंता ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सेवा । किळकाळा जिंकी देवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Sins flee from the power of kirtan, from your name sung in congregational praise. Why then would you make your own promise turn false? You fear sin, only to sow anxiety in us. Says Tuka, devotion to God conquers even Death.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sins flee before the kirtan. They flee before your Name sung together. So why begin this? Why let your own word turn false? You are afraid of sin, only to plant worry in us. Tuka says: this service, this devotion, conquers Death himself, O God.
What it means
Tukaram speaks half in argument with God. The promise is that sins run from the Name sung in shared praise, so he presses the point: do not let that promise prove false by drawing back as if our sins were too much. To hesitate over sin is to make God seem afraid of it, and that fear only breeds anxiety in the devotee. The verse insists the Name is stronger than any sin. Devotion offered to God, Tuka says, defeats even death.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
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