Adoration, refusal of heavens
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
समचरणदृष्टि विटेवरी साजिरी । तेथें माझी हरी वृत्ति राहो ॥१॥
आणीक न लगे मायिक पदार्थ । तेथें माझें आर्त्त नको देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
ब्रम्हादिक पदें दुःखाची शिराणी । तेथें दुश्चित झणी जडों देसी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे त्याचें कळलें आम्हां वर्म । जे जे कर्मधर्म नाशवंत ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Beautiful is the sight of those even feet poised upon the brick. Let my awareness, O Hari, rest right there. I have no use for the illusory things of this world; do not let that anguish rise in me, O God. The stations of Brahma and the gods are but pillows of sorrow; never let my disturbed mind cling there. Tuka says: we have learned the crux of it. All karmic duties, all dharmic observances, every bit of it turns to dust.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let my mind rest on his feet, there on the brick, and stay. I want nothing else. The things of this world are not real; let me not ache for them. And I do not want the heavens either. Even the seat of Brahma, even the place of the gods, is only a soft place to lie down in sorrow. You can rise there, and you can fall from there. His feet do not pass away. Every duty, every rite, wears out in the end. I have learned the heart of it. Only this remains.
What it means
Tukaram is praying for one thing and naming its price. He fixes his attention on Vitthal's feet, set level on the brick at Pandhari, and asks that it never move from there. Then he refuses everything else, downward and upward alike: not only worldly things, but the highest heavens a soul can earn. He calls them pillows of sorrow, because whatever you can rise to you can also fall from, so even heaven is only a comfortable place to keep on suffering. The feet on the brick are the one thing that never passes. He says he has understood this to the root: every duty and every ritual wears out in the end, and only that resting place remains.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →