Tenderness, God as nursing mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझी विठ्ठल माउली । प्रेमें पान्हा पान्हायेली ॥1॥
कृवाळूनि लावी स्तनीं । न वजे दुरी जवळूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
केली पुरवी आळी । नव्हे निष्ठ कोंवळी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे घांस । मुखीं घाली ब्रह्मरस ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My Vitthal is a mother overflowing with the milk of love. Holding me tenderly, she places me at her breast and will not let me go. She fulfills every wish of mine; she is gentle, never harsh. Says Tuka, she feeds me mouthfuls of the essence of Brahman.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My Vitthal is my mother, her breasts full and flowing with the milk of love. She holds me close and lays me at her breast and will not let me move away from her. She grants every demand I make; she is gentle, never harsh. Tuka says: she puts the mouthful in, and it is the nectar of Brahman.
What it means
Tukaram pictures Vitthal not as a distant lord but as a nursing mother. The milk is the milk of love, and the mother keeps the child pressed to her breast, refusing to let it stray. She indulges every wish and is never severe, the opposite of a god who tests and punishes. The last line lifts the image: what she feeds the child, mouthful by mouthful, is brahmarasa, the very essence of the Absolute. So ordinary mother-love becomes the channel of the highest reality, and devotion is fed like an infant, not earned.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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