Devotion, Vaikuntha on earth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पंढरीचा महिमा । देतां आणीक उपमा ॥१॥
ऐसा ठाव नाहीं कोठें । देव उभाउभी भेटे ॥ध्रु.॥
आहेति सकळ । तीर्थे काळें देती फळ ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे पेठ । भूमिवरी हे वैकुंठ ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The glory of Pandhari is beyond all comparison. There is no place like it, where God meets you standing face to face. All other sacred places yield their fruit through time. Says Tuka, this is the marketplace of Vaikuntha, here upon the earth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The glory of Pandhari is beyond anything you could compare it to. There is no other place like it, where God meets you standing right there, face to face. Every other holy place yields its fruit only slowly, over time. Tuka says: this is the marketplace of Vaikuntha, set down here on the earth.
What it means
Tukaram exalts Pandharpur above every other sacred place. Elsewhere the holy sites grant their blessings slowly, made to wait on time and merit; but here, he says, God stands openly and meets the devotee face to face, with nothing in between. His final image is characteristically down-to-earth: Pandhari is Vaikuntha, God's own heaven, set up as a marketplace on the ground, where the highest thing is available in the open, to anyone who comes. Heaven is not far off; it has set up shop where the poor can reach it.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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