Devotion, the single-pointed mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पतिव्रता नेणे आणिकांची स्तुती । सर्वभावें पति ध्यानीं मनीं ॥1॥
तैसें माझें मन एकविध जालें । नावडे विठ्ठलेंविण दुजें ॥ध्रु.॥
सूर्यविकासिनी नेघे चंद्रकळा । गाय ते कोकिळा वसंतेंसी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बाळ मातेपुढें नाचे । बोल आणिकांचे नावडती ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A faithful wife knows no praise but her husband's; with her whole being she keeps him in her thoughts and meditation. Just so, my mind has become single-pointed; it finds nothing desirable apart from Vitthal. The sun-lotus does not open to moonlight; the cuckoo sings only for the spring. Says Tuka, a child dances before its mother and does not care for the words of strangers.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A faithful wife knows no praise but her husband's; with her whole being she holds him in thought and meditation. So my mind has become one-pointed. It wants nothing apart from Vitthal. The sun-lotus does not open to the moon's light; the cuckoo sings only for the spring. Tuka says: a child dances before its mother and does not care for the words of strangers.
What it means
Tukaram describes a mind that has narrowed to a single object of love. He reaches for natural and human likenesses: the devoted wife who has eyes for no one but her husband, the sun-lotus that opens to the sun and not the moon, the cuckoo that sings only in spring, the child that dances for its mother and ignores everyone else. Each image is something whose response is fixed and faithful by its very nature. In the same way his mind now finds nothing else desirable; only Vitthal draws it. Devotion here is not effortful restraint but a love so settled that no rival even appeals.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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