Devotion, the milk of Hari-katha
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अविट हें क्षीर हरिकथा माउली । सेविती सेविली वैष्णवजनीं ॥1॥
अमृत राहिलें लाजोनि माघारें । येणें रसें थोरें ब्रह्मानंदे ॥ध्रु.॥
पतित पातकी पावनपंगती । चतुर्भुज होती देवाऐसे ॥2॥
सर्व सुखें तया मोहोरती ठाया । जेथें दाटणी या वैष्णवांची ॥3॥
निर्गुण हें सोंग धरिलें गुणवंत । धरूनियां प्रीत गाये नाचे ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The inexhaustible milk of Hari-katha is the Divine Mother. The Vaishnava people have drunk of it and continue to drink. Even nectar has retreated in shame before this great bliss of Brahman. The fallen and the sinful sit in the purifying assembly and become four-armed like God Himself. All joys gather wherever the Vaishnavas press together. The Nirguna has taken on the guise of the quality-bearing one, and with love, sings and dances.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The story of Hari is inexhaustible milk; she is the Divine Mother. The Vaishnava people have drunk of it and go on drinking. Even nectar drew back in shame before this, the great bliss of Brahman. The fallen and the sinful sit down in this purifying company and become four-armed, like God himself. All joys gather to the place where the Vaishnavas press close together. The formless one has put on the guise of the one with form and qualities, and holding love, he sings and dances.
What it means
Tukaram praises the telling and hearing of Hari's story as the one food that never runs out, calling it the milk of the Divine Mother, sweeter even than the nectar of immortality. The stakes he names are who gets fed: the fallen and the sinful, who are not turned away but transformed in this company until they take on God's own form. Wherever devotees crowd together, every joy comes to that spot. The closing image is the boldest claim: the formless absolute has voluntarily taken shape and stepped into the gathering to sing and dance with them, as if God will not stay distant while his people make this music.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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