Devotion, God beside me everywhere
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जेथें जेथें जासी । तेथें मज चि तूं पासी ॥1॥
ऐसा पसरीन भाव । रिता नाहीं कोणी ठाव ॥ध्रु.॥
चित्त जडलें पायीं । पाळती हें ठायीं ठायीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे पोटीं । देव घालुनि सांगें गोष्टी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Wherever you go, you find me right beside you. I have spread my devotion so wide that no place is left empty of it. My mind is fixed upon your feet, and this devotion is present everywhere. Says Tuka, I hold God within my chitta, and from there I speak all that I say.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Wherever you go, you are right there beside me. I have spread my love so wide that no place is left empty of it. My mind is fastened to your feet, and this love keeps watch in every place. Tuka says: I hold God inside my heart, and from there I speak everything I say.
What it means
Tukaram describes a love that has filled every corner of his world, so that there is no place where God is not near him. His attention is fixed on God's feet, and that fixed devotion keeps a kind of watch over every place at once. The closing line is the radical claim: God is not somewhere far off but lodged within his own heart, and that indwelling is the source of all his words. Speech itself becomes God speaking from within.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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