Devotion, the prattling child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मायबापापुढें लाटिकें लेंकरूं । तैसे बोल करूं कवतुकें ॥1॥
कृपावंता घालीं प्रेमपान्हारस । वोळली वोरसे पांडुरंग ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं धीर खुंटी जवळी हुंबरे । ठायीं च पाखर कविळते ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज होऊं नेदी सीण । कळों नेदी भिन्न आहे ऐसें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Like a prattling child before its parents, I speak these playful, innocent words. O compassionate one, pour out the milk of your love; Panduranga overflows with tender affection. The child has no patience and cries when the mother is near, fluttering and nestling close. Says Tuka, He does not let me grow weary, nor does He let me feel that we are ever apart.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Like a small child babbling before its mother and father, I say these playful words. O compassionate one, pour out the milk of your love. Panduranga overflows with tenderness. The child has no patience; it cries with the mother right there, fluttering and nestling close. Tuka says: He does not let me grow weary. He does not let me feel that we are ever apart.
What it means
Tukaram casts the bond with God as the bond of a baby and its parents, and lets his words be that childish. He asks the compassionate one to pour out love like a mother's milk, and says Panduranga is already brimming over with it. The child's impatience is the point: it cries and clings even with the mother present, because closeness is its whole need. The poem ends in reassurance. God will not let the devotee tire out, and will not let him feel any gap between them, so the crying is answered before it is finished.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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