The tenderness of God, the mother who follows
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मारगीं चालतां पाउलापाउलीं । चिंतावी माउली पांडुरंग ॥1॥
सर्व सुख लागे घेउनिया पाठी । आवडींचा कंठीं रस ओती ॥ध्रु.॥
पीतांबरें छाया करी लोभापर । पाहे तें उत्तर आवडीचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हें चि करावें जीवन । वाचे नारायण तान भूक ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Walking along the road, at every step, Panduranga the mother thinks of his devotee. All happiness follows behind, pouring the nectar of love into the throat. He shades the devotee with his yellow silken cloth, tenderly, looking only for a word of love in return. Says Tuka, make this your sustenance: let the name of Narayana on your tongue be your food and drink.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
As you walk along the road, at every step, let mother Panduranga be in your thoughts. All happiness comes following behind you, pouring the nectar of love into your throat. He spreads his yellow silk to shade you, full of tenderness, asking only for a word of love in return. Tuka says: make this your living. Let the name of Narayana on your tongue be your hunger and your thirst.
What it means
Tukaram pictures God not as a distant lord but as a mother walking beside the devotee, step by step. The image reverses ordinary religion: here happiness chases the devotee rather than the other way around, and God himself pours sweetness into the throat. The yellow silk held up for shade and the longing for one loving word show a God who tends rather than tests. The instruction at the end is practical: let the holy Name be your food and drink, the thing you live on, so that remembrance becomes as constant and as needed as hunger itself.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →