Devotion, trust that lets go of asking
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहु उतावीळ भक्तीचिया काजा । होसी केशीराजा मायबापा ॥1॥
तुझ्या पायीं मज जालासे विश्वास । ह्मणोनियां आस मोकलिली ॥ध्रु.॥
ॠषि मुनि सिद्ध साधक अपार । कळला विचार त्यांसी तुझा ॥2॥
नाहीं नास तें सुख दिलें तयांस । जाले जे उदास सर्वभावें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे सुख न माये मानसीं । धरिले जीवेंसी पाय तुझे ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You are most eager for the cause of devotion, O Keshiraja, Father and Mother. I have placed my trust at Your feet, and so I have let go of all expectations. Sages, mystics, the perfected, and seekers beyond number have understood Your nature. To those who became wholly detached in every way, You gave imperishable joy. Says Tuka, the happiness cannot be contained in the manas. I have clasped Your feet with my very jiva.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You are so eager for the work of devotion, O Keshiraja, my Mother and Father. I have placed my trust at your feet, and so I have let go of every expectation. Sages, mystics, the perfected, and seekers beyond counting have understood your nature. To those who grew wholly detached, in every way, you gave joy that does not perish. Tuka says: the happiness will not fit inside my manas. I have clasped your feet with my very jiva.
What it means
Tukaram addresses Vitthal as the God who is keenest of all to help the devotee, and as both mother and father at once. Because he trusts those feet completely, he can stop asking for anything: the trust replaces the petition. He recalls that countless sages and seekers came to know God's nature, and that the gift God gave them, an imperishable joy, went to those who had let go of everything else. Then he points to his own state: a happiness too large for the mind to hold, born not of clever effort but of clasping God's feet with his whole life.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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