Welcoming God, the poor man's hospitality
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाहुणे घरासी । आजि आले हृषीकेशी ॥1॥
काय करूं उपचार । कोंप मोडकी जर्जर ।
कण्या दरदर । पाण्यामाजी रांधिल्या ॥ध्रु.॥
घरीं मोडकिया बाजा । वरि वाकळांच्या शेजा ॥2॥
मुखशुिद्ध तुळसी दळ । तुका ह्मणे मी दुर्बळ ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Today the guest Hrishikesha has come to our house. What hospitality can I offer? The house is broken down and crumbling; the grain is coarse and cooked simply in water. The cots at home are broken, covered with rough blankets for bedding. Says Tuka, I am poor; a tulsi leaf from my mouth is all I can offer to cleanse it.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A guest has come to my house. Today Hrishikesha has come. What welcome can I offer? My hut is broken down and crumbling. The grain is coarse, just boiled in water. The cots inside are broken, with rough blankets thrown over for bedding. To freshen his mouth, only a tulsi leaf. Tuka says: I am poor.
What it means
Tukaram receives God as a guest in his house and is honest about how little he has to offer. The hut is falling apart, the food is coarse grain boiled in water, the beds are broken and covered with rags, and the only mouth-freshener is a single tulsi leaf. He does not dress up his poverty or apologize it away; he simply lays it bare before the Lord. The unspoken claim is that love offers what it has, and that the tulsi leaf given by a poor devotee is welcome to God, who has come anyway.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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