Devotion, the longing held in the throat
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मथुरेच्या राया । माझें दंडवत पायां ॥1॥
तुमचे कृपेचें पोसनें । माझा समाचार घेणें ॥ध्रु.॥
नाम धरिलें कंठीं । असें आर्तभूत पोटीं ॥2॥
जीवींचें ते जाणा । तुका ह्मणे नारायणा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O King of Mathura, I bow at your feet. It is by your grace that you nourish me and look after my welfare. I hold your name in my throat, and deep longing burns within me. Says Tuka, O Narayana, you alone know what lies in my jiva.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
O King of Mathura, my bowing at your feet. I am fed by your grace; look after me. I hold your name in my throat. There is a deep ache inside me. Tuka says: O Narayana, you know what is in my heart.
What it means
Tukaram bows to Krishna, the King of Mathura, and frames his whole life as already sustained by that grace, so he asks only to be looked after still. He holds the divine name lodged in his throat, kept close as breath, while a longing burns inside him that he does not fully spell out. He trusts that he does not need to spell it out: Narayana already knows what lies in his heart. The prayer rests on that intimacy, that the One addressed sees the inner state without being told.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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