Adoration, refusing liberation for love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवा ऐकें हे विनंती । मज नको रे हे मुक्ति । तया इच्छा गति । हें चि सुख आगळें ॥1॥
या वैष्णवांचे घरीं । प्रेमसुख इच्छा करी । रििद्धसिद्धी द्वारीं । कर जोडूनि उभ्या ॥ध्रु.॥
नको वैकुंठींचा वास । असे तया सुखा नास । अद्भुत हा रस । कथाकाळीं नामाचा ॥2॥
तुझ्या नामाचा महिमा । तुज न कळे रे मेघशामा । तुका ह्मणे आह्मां । जन्म गोड यासाटीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O God, hear this prayer: I do not want liberation. The desire for the joy of devotion is itself the greatest happiness. In the homes of these Vaishnavas, I crave the bliss of love, where riddhi and siddhi stand at the door with folded hands. I do not want a place in Vaikuntha, for even that joy can end. But the wondrous essence of the Name during kirtan is beyond compare. Says Tuka, the greatness of your Name is beyond even your own knowing, O dark-hued Lord. This is why, for us, birth itself is sweet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
O God, hear this prayer: I do not want this liberation. Let my way be the way of longing for you; that is the higher joy. In the homes of these Vaishnavas I want only the joy of love, where riddhi and siddhi stand at the door with folded hands. I do not want a dwelling in Vaikuntha; even that joy can end. The wonder is in the taste of the Name during the telling. Tuka says: the greatness of your Name, O dark-hued one, you yourself do not know; this is why birth is sweet to us.
What it means
Tukaram is refusing the soul's highest prize and asking instead to keep on longing. He tells God plainly that he does not want liberation; the desire for devotion is itself the greater happiness. He would rather stand in the company of the devotees, where even the powers riddhi and siddhi wait humbly at the door, than take a permanent place in Vaikuntha, because any state you can be given is a state that can end. The unending thing is the taste of the Name during kirtan. He pushes the praise to its edge: the power of the Name is so great that God himself cannot measure it, and that is the very reason a human birth, which lets him sing it, is sweet.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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