Arati to Pandharinath, the dawn-lamp of devotion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्तीचिया पोटीं बोध कांकडा ज्योती । पंचप्राण जीवें भावें ओंवाळूं आरती ॥1॥
ओंवाळू आरती माझ्या पंढरीनाथा। दोन्ही कर जोडोनि चरणीं ठेवीन माथा ॥ध्रु.॥
काय महिमा वणूप आतां सांगणें तें किती । कोटि ब्रह्महत्या मुख पाहतां जाती ॥2॥
राही रखुमाई दोही दों बाही । मयूर पिच्छचामरें ढािळति ठायीं ठायीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे दीप घेऊनि उन्मनति शोभा । विटेवरी उभा दिसे लावण्यगाभा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In the womb of devotion, wisdom is the dawn-lamp; with the five vital breaths and wholehearted love, I wave this arati. I wave the arati before my Lord of Pandhari, joining both hands and placing my head at his feet. What glory shall I describe, and how much can I tell? A million sins of the worst kind vanish at the sight of his face. Rakhumai and Rukmini stand on either side, fanning him with peacock-feather whisks everywhere. Says Tuka, taking up the lamp, the mind soars beyond itself in radiance. There he stands upon the brick, a treasury of beauty.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In the womb of devotion, wisdom is the dawn-lamp; with my five breaths, with life and love, I wave this arati. I wave the arati before my Lord of Pandhari. I join both my hands and lay my head at his feet. What glory shall I tell, and how much can I say? A million of the worst sins go away at the sight of his face. Rahi and Rakhumai stand on either side of him, fanning him with peacock-feather whisks, here and there. Tuka says: as I take up the lamp, the mind soars beyond itself in beauty. There he stands upon the brick, a treasury of loveliness.
What it means
Another arati, this one to the Lord of Pandhari, but it reads the ritual inwardly. The lamp Tukaram waves is not only the clay one in the hand: devotion is the womb, wisdom is the flame, and the five vital breaths are the offering, so the whole person is what is being lifted before the god. He claims that the mere sight of that face cancels even the gravest sins, the strongest way the tradition has of saying that contact with God outweighs any weight of guilt. As he raises the lamp, the mind passes beyond its ordinary state into the unmani condition, a thought-free height. The song ends fixed on the familiar image: God standing on the brick at Pandharpur, a treasury of beauty.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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