Surrender, only Vitthal remains
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ज्या ज्या आह्मांपाशीं होतील ज्या शक्ति । तेणें हा श्रीपती अळंकारूं ॥1॥
अवघा पायांपाशीं दिला जीवभाव । जन्ममरणाठाव पुसियेला ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्याचें देणें त्यासी घातला संकल्प। बंधनाचें पाप चुकविलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें उरला विठ्ठल । खाये बोले बोल गाये नाचे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
With whatever capacities I have, I will adorn the Lord. At His feet I have laid the jiva-bhava entire. The ground of birth and death has been erased. What was His to begin with, I have offered back to Him with solemn resolve. The sin of bondage has been averted. Says Tuka, only Vitthala remains here now. He eats, He speaks, He sings, He dances.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
With whatever powers I have, I will adorn this Lord of Lakshmi. The whole sense of being a separate self I have laid at his feet. The ground of birth and death is wiped away. What was always his, I have given back to him with a firm vow. The sin of bondage is escaped. Tuka says: only Vitthal is left here now. He eats, he speaks the words, he sings, he dances.
What it means
Tukaram describes total self-surrender and what remains after it. He offers every ability he has to honor God, and he lays the whole sense of being a separate self, the jiva-bhava, down at the feet. With that, the very ground of birth and death is erased. He frames it as returning what was never his to begin with, sealed by a vow, and this is what breaks the sin of bondage. The end is radical: with the separate self gone, only Vitthal is left, and it is now God who eats, speaks, sings, and dances through him.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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