True worship, the mind alone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघ्या उपचारा । एक मनें चि दातारा ॥1॥
घ्यावी घ्यावी हे चि सेवा । माझी दुर्बळाची देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
अवघियाचा ठाव। पायांवरि जीवभाव ॥2॥
चित्ताचें आसन । तुका करितो कीर्तन ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All worship is rendered through the mind alone, O Generous One. Accept this seva of mine, a poor man's offering to You, O God. The foundation of everything rests upon Your feet, where the jiva-sense itself is placed. Says Tuka, kirtan is the seat of chitta; this is where I perform my worship.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All worship happens in the mind alone, O Generous One. Take this seva, take it. It is the offering of a poor man, O God. The ground of everything is here: my life-sense laid upon Your feet. My seat is my own attention. Tuka says: there I sing Your kirtan; there I worship.
What it means
Tukaram redraws what worship even is. He says all real worship is done in the mind, not in props or ritual show, and he hands over the one thing a poor man has to give: his whole attention. He places his very sense of being alive at Vitthal's feet and makes his own steadied mind the altar he sits at. The kirtan he sings is not a performance somewhere else; it is the worship itself, offered from inside.
True Worship
What genuine worship looks like, beyond outward observances and images.
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