राम
गाथा 614Ecstasy and Joy

Ecstasy, the soul at its mother's home

Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram

मराठी मूळ

आतां पावन सकळ सुखें । खादलें कदा तें नखें । अवघे सरलें पारिखें । सकळ देखें माहियरें ॥1॥

जवळी विठ्ठल रखुमाई । बहिणी बंधु बाप आई । सकळ गोताची च साई । पारिखें काई ऐसें नेणिजे ॥ध्रु.॥

जगदाकारीं जाली सत्ता । वारोनी गेली पराधीनता । अवघे आपुलें चि आतां । लाज आणि चिंता दु†हावली ॥2॥

वावरे इच्छा वसे घरीं । आपुले सत्तेचे माहेरीं । करवी तैसें आपण करी । भीड न घरी चुकल्याची ॥3॥

सोसिला होता सासुरवास। बहुतांचा बहुत दिवस । बहु कामें पुरविला सोस । आतां उदास आपुल्यातें ॥4॥

करिती कवतुक लाडें । मज बोलविती कोडें । मायबाप उत्तरें गोडें । बोेले बोबडें पुढें तुका ॥5॥

Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)

English Translation

Now I have attained all joys. The days of biting my nails in anxiety are over. All that was foreign has ended, and everything feels like my mother's home. Vitthal and Rakhumai are near, like sister, brother, father, and mother. They are kin to all my people; nothing feels unfamiliar anymore. Sovereignty has come over all the world's forms, and dependence has departed. Everything is my own now; both shame and worry have been banished. Desire roams freely and dwells at home, in the comfort of its own authority. Whatever is done, one does it oneself, with no embarrassment over mistakes. I had endured the exile of a daughter-in-law's house for so many long days, fulfilling so many demands. Now I am free and at ease. They fondle me with loving play, they call me with delight. Says Tuka, my mother and father speak sweet words, and I babble before them like a child.

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

In Plain Words

Now I have come to every joy, made pure. The days of biting my nails in worry are gone. Everything that was foreign has ended. Everywhere I look I see my mother's home. Vitthal and Rakhumai are close to me, like sister and brother, father and mother. They are kin to all my people. I no longer know what a stranger is. Authority has spread over all the forms of the world, and dependence has gone away. Now everything is my own. Shame and worry have both been milked dry and sent off. Desire wanders free and lives at home, in the comfort of its own house. Here you do as you yourself please; you keep no fear of making a mistake. For a long time, for many days, I bore the harsh life of a bride in her husband's house, fulfilling so many demands. Now I am free and at ease with myself. They pet me with love. They call me with delight. Tuka says: my mother and father speak sweet words, and I babble in front of them like a child.

What it means

Tukaram pictures the soul as a married woman who has finally come home to her parents, where nothing is foreign and no one is a stranger. He has lived the harsh in-law years of worldly life, fulfilling endless demands and biting his nails in worry, and now that he has reached Vitthal and Rakhumai every relation is kin and every place is home. With dependence gone, shame and worry are dismissed and even desire settles down quietly inside its own house. The image is not pride but the relief of belonging: the strain of performing for outsiders is over. He ends as a doted-on child, babbling in front of a mother and father who answer with sweet words.

आनंद

Ecstasy and Joy

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

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