Devotion, God as nursing mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शीतळ साउली आमुची माउली । विठाई वोळली प्रेमपान्हा ॥1॥
जाऊनि वोसंगा वोरस । लागलें तें इच्छे पीइन वरी ॥ध्रु.॥
कृपा तनु माझा सांभाळी दुभूनि । अमृतजीवनी लोटलीसे ॥2॥
आनंदाचा ठाव नाहीं माझा चित्तीं । सागर तो किती उपमेसी ॥3॥
सैर जाये पडे तयेसी सांकडें । सांभाळीत पुढें मागें आस ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे चिंता कैसी ते मी नेणें । लडिवाळ तान्हें विठाईचें ॥5॥
रामचरित्र - अभंग ॥14॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Our mother is a cool shade. Vitthal has come overflowing with the milk of love. Going to her lap, I cling there, and drink my fill of all that I desire. She tends to my body with her grace, nourishing it; the nectar of immortal life pours forth. There is no room in my chitta to hold this joy. What measure can even the ocean be? Wherever she goes, if trouble presses, she watches over her child before and behind. Says Tuka, I do not know what worry is. I am the suckling infant of Vitthal, my mother.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Our mother is a cool shade. Vitthal has come overflowing with the milk of love. Going to her lap, I cling there and drink my fill of all I want. She tends my body with her grace, nourishing it; the nectar of deathless life pours forth. There is no room in my heart to hold this joy. What measure could even the ocean be? Wherever she goes, if trouble presses, she watches over her child in front and behind. Tuka says: I do not know what worry is. I am the suckling infant of Vitthal, my mother.
What it means
Tukaram speaks of Vitthal not as a distant lord but as a nursing mother, and of himself as the infant at her breast. He pictures her as cool shade and overflowing milk: he climbs into her lap, clings, and drinks his fill, and her grace nourishes him with the nectar of deathless life. The joy is more than his heart can hold; even the ocean is too small a measure for it. Because the mother watches her child front and back wherever danger comes, the seeker is left with nothing to fear: a suckling infant of God simply does not know what worry is.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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