Grace, lifted above all sorrow
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न देखिजे ऐसें केलें । या विठ्ठलें दुःखासी ॥1॥
कृपेचिये सिंव्हासनीं । अधिष्ठानीं बैसविलें ॥ध्रु.॥
वाजता तो नलगे वारा क्षीरसागरा शयनीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणें अवघें ठायीं । मज पायीं राखिलें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Vitthal has made it so that sorrow is nowhere to be seen. He has seated me upon the throne of his mercy. One who rests upon the ocean of milk needs no fanning breeze. Says Tuka, he has kept me at his feet in every place.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Vitthal has made it so that sorrow can no longer be seen. He has seated me on the throne of his mercy, in the place of honor. One who lies on the ocean of milk needs no fanning breeze. Tuka says: in every place he has kept me at his feet.
What it means
Tukaram describes what grace has done to him: Vitthal has put sorrow so far out of sight that he can no longer even find it. He has been lifted and set on the throne of mercy, given the seat of honor he never earned. The image of resting on the ocean of milk, where the Lord himself reclines, says that one held this securely needs nothing added, no breeze, no comfort from outside. The whole rests on the last line: wherever he is, he is kept at the feet, and that keeping is the source of the joy.
Ecstasy and Joy
Triumphant happiness: poems written from the far side of the struggle.
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