Devotion, choosing form over liberation
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मोक्षपदें तुच्छ केलीं याकारणें । आह्मां जन्म घेणें युगायुगीं ॥1॥
विटे ऐसें सुख नव्हे भक्तिरस । पुडतीपुडती आस सेवावें हें ॥ध्रु.॥
देवा हातीं रूप धरविला आकार । नेदूं निराकार होऊं त्यासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चित्त निवांत राहिलें । ध्याई तीं पाउलें विटेवरि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We have made liberation itself seem trifling, for we wish to be born age after age. No bliss of formless dissolution can match the sweetness of the brick where He stands; this nectar must be tasted again and again. We have compelled God to hold a form with shape and features, and we will not let Him become formless. Says Tuka, my mind rests in perfect stillness, meditating on those feet upon the brick.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We have made the stages of liberation seem worthless, and for this reason: we want to be born age after age. No bliss can match the sweetness of the brick where he stands; this nectar must be tasted again and again. We have made God hold a form with shape; we will not let him become formless. Tuka says: my mind has come to rest, still, meditating on those feet upon the brick.
What it means
Tukaram is refusing liberation on purpose, and saying why. Most seekers want release from rebirth; he wants the opposite, to be born again and again, because each birth means more of the sweetness of Vitthal standing on the brick at Pandhari. He calls the formless bliss less than that nectar, and insists on keeping God in form: he will not let the Lord dissolve into the formless. The poem ends in stillness, his mind at rest on those feet, which is the one thing he wants from any birth.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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