The found secret, the only vessel
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भवसिंधूचें हें तारूं । मज विचारूं पाहातां ॥1॥
चित्तीं तुझे धरिन पाय । सुख काय तें तेथें ॥ध्रु.॥
माझ्या खुणा मनापाशीं। तें या रसीं बुडालें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वर्म आलें । हातां भलें हें माझ्या ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When I consider it, this is the vessel to cross the ocean of existence. I shall hold Your feet in my chitta; all happiness resides there. My inner marks are with the mind, and that mind is drowned in this bliss. Says Tuka, the secret has come into my hands. This is my good fortune.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When I look into it, this is the boat that carries me across the ocean of birth and death. I will hold Your feet in my mind. What other happiness is there than that? My inner marks are kept in my mind, and that mind has drowned in this sweetness. Tuka says: the secret has come into my hands. This is my good fortune.
What it means
Tukaram has found one thing and named it as everything. The world is an ocean you cannot cross on your own, and he says Vitthal's feet are the boat. So he keeps his mind fixed on those feet, and asks what happiness could possibly lie anywhere else. The deepest signs of his own self, the marks he kept inside, have dissolved into the sweetness of this attention. He calls it a secret because it cannot be argued out; it can only be received, and he says it has fallen into his hands.
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