Renunciation, one firm resolve
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां कांहीं सोस न करीं आणीक । धरीन तें एक हें चि दृढ ॥1॥
जेणें भवसिंधु उतरिजे पार । तुटे हा दुस्तर गर्भवास ॥ध्रु.॥
जोडीन ते आतां देवाचे चरण । अविनाश धन परमार्थ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बरा जोडला हा देह । मनुष्यपणें इहलोका आलों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now I shall strive for nothing else. I hold firm to this one resolve alone. That resolve by which one crosses to the far shore of the ocean of existence, and this terrible womb-dwelling, so hard to escape, is cut away. I shall now earn the feet of God: the imperishable wealth, the supreme purpose. Says Tuka, this human body is well obtained. I have come to this world in human form.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now I will crave nothing else. I hold to this one thing, and hold it firm. The resolve by which the ocean of birth and death is crossed, and this hard, terrible dwelling in the womb is cut off. Now I will earn the feet of God: the wealth that never perishes, the highest purpose. Tuka says: this body has been well gained. I have come into this world in human form.
What it means
Tukaram narrows his whole life down to a single resolve and names why it is worth everything. He renounces all other longing and fixes on one thing alone, because that one thing carries a person across the ocean of birth and death and ends the painful cycle of being born again and again. The feet of God, he says, are the only wealth that does not perish and the only true aim. The poem closes by naming the rare chance: a human birth, which he calls well gained precisely because it makes this resolve possible.
Renunciation
The case for letting go of worldly attachments and turning wholly to God.
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