Devotion, only Your feet matter
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जाणावें ते काय नेणावें ते काय । ध्यावे तुझे पाय हें चि सार ॥1॥
करावें तें काय न करावें तें काय । ध्यावें तुझे पाय हें चि सार ॥ध्रु.॥
बोलावें तें काय न बोलावें तें काय । ध्यावे तुझे पाय हें चि सार ॥2॥
जावें तें कोठें न वजावे आतां । बरवें आठवितां नाम तुझें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तूं करिसी तें सोपे । पुण्यें होती पापें आमुच्या मतें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What is there to know, what is there not to know? To meditate on Your feet is the essence of all. What is there to do, what is there not to do? To meditate on Your feet is the essence. What to say, what not to say? To meditate on Your feet is the essence. Where to go, where not to go? It is good simply to remember Your name. Says Tuka, what You do becomes simple. By our own reckoning, merits turn to sins.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is there to know, what is there not to know? To meditate on Your feet is the whole of it. What is there to do, what is there not to do? To meditate on Your feet is the whole of it. What to say, what not to say? To meditate on Your feet is the whole of it. Where to go, where not to go? It is good simply to remember Your name. Tuka says: whatever You do becomes easy. By my own reckoning, my merits turn into sins.
What it means
Tukaram takes the great anxious questions, what to know, do, say, where to go, and dissolves every one of them into a single answer: meditate on the feet, remember the name. The poem is not lazy; it is choosing. He is saying the mind's endless sorting of right and wrong is beside the point next to that one fixed practice. The last line cuts deeper: when he scores himself, even his good deeds come out as sins, because they carry his pride. So he stops scoring and rests in what God does, which alone becomes easy.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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