Adoration, the God caught by devotion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दोन्ही हात ठेवुनि कटीं । उभा भीवरेच्या तटीं । कष्टलासी साटीं । भक्तिकाजें विठ्ठला ॥1॥
भागलासी मायबापा । बहु श्रम केल्या खेपा । आह्मालागीं सोपा । दैत्या काळ कृतांत ॥ध्रु.॥
होतासी क्षीरसागरीं । मही दाटली असुरीं । ह्मणोनियां घरीं। गौिळयांचे अवतार ॥2॥
केला पुंडलिकें गोवा । तुज पंढरीसि देवा। तुका ह्मणे भावा । साटीं हातीं सांपडसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
With both hands placed upon His hips, He stands on the bank of the Bhima. You have wearied Yourself, O Vitthal, laboring for the sake of devotion. O Father and Mother, You have toiled through many journeys for our sake. The fierce destroyer of demons has become gentle and easy for us. You were resting in the ocean of milk, but the earth was overrun by demons. That is why You took birth in the house of cowherds. Pundalik caught You in his snare and kept You in Pandhari. Says Tuka, You are caught by the hand of devotion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Both hands resting on his hips, he stands on the bank of the Bhima. You have worn yourself out, O Vitthal, laboring for the sake of devotion. O mother and father, you have toiled through many journeys for our sake. The fierce destroyer of demons has become gentle and easy for us. You were resting in the ocean of milk, but the earth was crowded with demons; that is why you took birth in the house of the cowherds. Pundalik caught you in his snare and held you here in Pandhari. Tuka says: you are caught in the hand of devotion.
What it means
Tukaram pictures Vitthal in his familiar pose, hands on hips at Pandharpur by the river, and reads tenderness into it: God has tired himself out for love of his devotees. He gathers the avatars into one thought, the Lord who slays demons made gentle for ordinary people, descending from the milk ocean into a cowherd's home because the earth needed him. The hinge is the story of Pundalik, whose devotion to his parents kept God standing and waiting at Pandhari. Tukaram turns the whole sweep of divine power into proof of one thing: the almighty God is willingly bound, caught and held in the hand of a devotee's love.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →