Devotion as feast, time not wasted
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रुची रुची घेऊं गोडी । प्रेमसुखें जाली जोडी ॥1॥
काळ जाऊं नेदूं वांयां । चिंतितां विठोबाच्या पायां ॥ध्रु.॥
करूं भजन भोजन । धणी घेऊं नारायण ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जीव धाला । होय तुझ्यानें विठ्ठला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let us taste the sweetness, morsel by morsel. Through love's delight, a true gain has been made. Let not a moment be wasted while contemplating Vithoba's feet. Let devotion become our meal; let us take our fill of Narayana. Says Tuka, the jiva is filled, O Vitthala.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let us taste the sweetness, bit by bit. Through the joy of love a true gain is made. Let us waste no moment, contemplating Vithoba's feet. Let devotion be our meal; let us eat our fill of Narayana. Tuka says: the soul is satisfied, Vitthala, by You.
What it means
Tukaram speaks in the warm plural of shared practice, inviting others to savor devotion like food taken mouthful by mouthful. The gain he points to is the joy of love itself, not some later reward. He presses the urgency lightly: let no moment slip while the mind can rest on Vithoba's feet. Turning devotion into a meal and the Name into nourishment, he ends by naming the fruit; the soul is filled and satisfied, and that fullness comes from Vitthala alone.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →