Devotion, contention as true service
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हों गांढे आळसी । जो तूं आह्मांपुढें जासी ॥1॥
अरे दिलें आह्मां हातीं । वर्म वेवादाचें संतीं ॥ध्रु.॥
धरोनियां वाट। जालों शिरोमणि थोंट ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । वाद करीन खरी सेवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I am no fool or idler, not when you stand before me. The saints have placed the secret weapon of disputation into our hands. Holding firm to the path, I have become a champion, stubborn to the core. Says Tuka, O God, I will carry on this argument as my truest service.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am no coward, no idler, not when you stand before me. The saints have put into our hands the secret of how to contend. Holding firm to the path, I have become a stubborn champion. Tuka says: O God, I will keep up this argument as my truest service.
What it means
Tukaram refuses to go slack before God; standing in his presence rouses him to fight, not to drowse. He credits the saints, his teachers, with handing him the very art of holy disputation, the weapon by which a devotee contends with the Lord and presses his claim. Gripping that path, he turns himself into an unyielding champion who will not let go. He recasts what looks like quarreling as worship: pressing his case with God is itself the truest form of his service.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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