Devotion, fill the house and be done with rebirth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धांवे त्यासी फावे । दुजे उगवूनि गोवे ॥1॥
घ्यावें भरूनियां घर । मग नाहीं येरझार ॥ध्रु.॥
धणी उभें केलें । पुंडलिकें या उगलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ठसा । गेला पडोनियां ऐसा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He who runs forward seizes it, while others, having set out, get entangled and bound. Fill your house completely with Him, and then there will be no more coming and going. Pundalik made the Lord stand still, freely, as an open gift. Says Tuka, such an impression has been stamped upon the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who runs forward seizes Him; others set out but only get tangled and bound. Fill your whole house with Him, and then there is no more coming and going. Pundalik made the Lord stand still, freely, as an open gift. Tuka says: such an imprint has been left upon the world.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts two ways of seeking: the one who runs straight to God lays hold of Him, while those who hesitate and complicate things only entangle themselves further. To fill the whole house with God is to leave no room for anything else, and that, he says, ends the endless coming and going of birth and death. He points to Pundalik, the devotee who, by his single-minded service, made the Lord stand waiting on the brick at Pandhari, freely given. That standing form is the lasting stamp left on the world: proof that wholehearted devotion makes God stay.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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