Devotion, dyed through in Vitthal
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विठ्ठल हा चित्तीं । गोड लागे गातां गीतीं ॥1॥
आह्मां विठ्ठल जीवन । टाळ चिपिळया धन ॥ध्रु.॥
विठ्ठल हे वाणी। अमृत हे संजिवनी ॥2॥
रंगला या रंगें । तुका विठ्ठल सर्वांगें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Vitthal dwells sweetly in the chitta and tastes delightful when sung in song. Vitthal is our very life; cymbals and clappers are our only wealth. The word Vitthal on the tongue is nectar, a life-restoring elixir. Says Tuka, I am dyed through and through in this color of Vitthal, in every limb.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Vitthal is in my mind. He tastes sweet when I sing him in song. For us Vitthal is life itself; the cymbals and clappers are our only wealth. The word Vitthal on the tongue is nectar, a herb that brings the dead back to life. Tuka says: I am dyed in this color, Vitthal in every limb.
What it means
This is a song about being saturated by the Name until nothing else is left. Vitthal lives in Tukaram's mind and turns sweet the moment it becomes song, so the singing itself is the joy. He sets the devotee's economy against the world's: cymbals and hand-clappers are the only wealth he counts, and Vitthal is not a help to life but life itself. The closing image is a dyer's: he has been dipped in this single color so completely that it has soaked into every limb, leaving no part of him his own.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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