Reclaimed birthright, no distance left
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निष्ठा उत्तरीं न धरावा राग । आहे लागभाग ठायींचा चि ॥1॥
तूं माझा जनिता तूं माझा जनिता । रखुमाईच्या कांता पांडुरंगा ॥ध्रु.॥
मुळींच्या ठेवण्यां आहे अधिकार । दुरावोनि दूर गेलों होतों ॥2॥
पोटींच्या आठवा पडिला विसर । काहीं आला भार माथां तेणें ॥3॥
राखिला हा होता बहु चौघां चार । साक्षीने वेव्हार निवडिला ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे कांहीं बोलणें न लगे । आतां पांडुरंगे तूं मी ऐसें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not take offense at my persistent words; the claim between us is ancient and real. You are my father, you are my father, O Panduranga, husband of Rakhumai. I have a rightful share in the original inheritance, though I had strayed far away. I had forgotten the stirrings within, burdened as I was by worldly weight. I kept up appearances before the four quarters, and now the account has been settled before witnesses. Says Tuka, nothing more need be said, O Panduranga; there is no longer any difference between you and me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not be angry at my stubborn words. The bond between us belongs here, from the very root. You are my father, you are my father, O Panduranga, husband of Rakhumai. I have a rightful share in the first inheritance. I had strayed far, far away. I forgot the stirrings inside me, so a load came to weigh on my head. This was kept hidden a long time, before the four quarters. Now the account has been settled before witnesses. Tuka says: nothing more needs saying. Now, O Panduranga, you and I are one.
What it means
Tukaram is pressing a claim, and he warns God not to bristle at how hard he presses. The bond is not earned, it is original: he calls Panduranga his father, the source from whom he came, so a child's share of the inheritance is his by right even though he wandered off and let the load of the world settle on him. The pretense he had kept up before the world is now over, the books opened and reckoned in plain sight. What is left is not a debt but an identity: there is no longer any gap between the devotee and God.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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