Bold devotion, God does nothing alone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुज नाहीं शक्ति । काम घेसी आह्मां हातीं ॥1॥
ऐसें अनुभवें पाहीं । उरलें बोलिजेसें नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
लपोनियां आड । आह्मां तुझा कैवाड ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुजसाठी । आह्मां संवसारें तुटी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have no discipline of your own; you make us do the work with our own hands. I have seen this through experience, and nothing remains to be said. You hide behind us, and we champion your cause. Says Tuka, for your sake we have broken with the entire world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have no work of your own. You get the work done through our hands. See this by experience. Nothing is left to say. You hide behind us, out of sight. We fight your cause for you. Tuka says: for your sake we have broken with the whole world.
What it means
Tukaram presses a daring complaint into a confession of love. God, he says, acts in the world only through his devotees; he himself stays hidden, while they are the ones who do the work and champion his name. Tukaram knows this not as theory but from his own experience of serving. And he names what that service has cost: for God's sake he has severed himself from the entire world, which is the price and proof of his devotion.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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