Devotion, Pandhari the market of love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पंढरीस दुःख न मिळे ओखदा । प्रेमसुख सदा सर्वकाळ ॥1॥
पुंडलिकें हाट भरियेली पेंठ । अवघें वैकुंठ आणियेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
उदमासी तुटी नाहीं कोणा हानि । घेऊनियां धणी लाभ घेती ॥2॥
पुरलें देशासी भरलें सिगेसी । अवघी पंचक्रोशी दुमदुमीत ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे संतां लागलीसे धणी । बैसले राहोनि पंढरीस ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In Pandhari, sorrow finds no remedy elsewhere; here the medicine is the joy of love, at all times and forever. Pundalik has opened the market and set up a grand fair, bringing all of Vaikuntha to this place. In this trade no one suffers loss; all who come take their fill and leave with profit. The whole land is filled and overflowing; the five-krosha precinct rings with the sound. Says Tuka, the saints have found their fill and have settled down to remain in Pandhari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In Pandhari sorrow finds no medicine anywhere; here the joy of love is the cure, always, at every hour. Pundalik has filled the market and set up the stalls; he has brought the whole of Vaikuntha here. In this trade nothing is lost and no one is harmed; all who come take their fill and carry away the gain. It fills the whole country and brims to the brink; the five-krosha precinct rings and roars with it. Tuka says: the saints have taken their fill and have settled down to stay in Pandhari.
What it means
Tukaram pictures Pandhari as a marketplace where the only goods on sale are the joy of love. There is no remedy for sorrow anywhere else, but here that joy is constantly available, because Pundalik has set up the stalls and drawn the whole of Vaikuntha down to this one town. He calls it a trade in which no one ever loses: everyone who comes takes their fill and leaves richer. The abundance overflows the whole land and fills the five-krosha sacred precinct with sound. The closing line gives the proof: the saints, having had their fill, have chosen to settle and stay, because nowhere else gives what this place gives.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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