Devotion, lowest place at Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कुळींचे दैवत ज्याचें पंढरीनाथ । होईन दासीसुत त्याचे घरीं ॥1॥
शुद्ध यातिकुळवर्णा चाड नाहीं । करीं भलते ठायीं दास तुझा ॥ध्रु.॥
पंढरीस कोणी जाती वारेकरी । होईन त्यांचे घरीं पशुयाति ॥2॥
विठ्ठलचिंतन दिवसरात्रीं ध्यान । होईन पायतन त्याचे पायीं ॥3॥
तुळसीवृंदावन जयाचे अंगणीं । होइन केरसुणी त्याचे घरीं ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे हा चि भाव माझ्या चित्तीं । नाहीं आणिकां गती चाड मज ॥5॥
अवघिया चाडा कुंटित करूनि । लावीं आपुली च गोडी । आशा मनसा तृष्णा कल्पना ।
करूनियां देशधडी । मीतूंपणापासाव गुंतलों । मिथ्या संकल्प तो माझा तोडीं ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whoever has the Lord of Pandhari as their family deity, I would be born as a servant in their house. I care nothing for caste, lineage, or social standing; make me your devotee anywhere at all. Whoever goes to Pandhari as a regular pilgrim, I would be born as an animal in their household. Whoever meditates on Vitthal day and night, I would become the sandals on their feet. Whoever has a tulsi garden in their courtyard, I would be the broom that sweeps their house. Says Tuka, this alone is the longing of my chitta; I desire no other destiny.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whoever has the Lord of Pandhari as their family deity, I would be born a servant's son in their house. I care nothing for caste, lineage, or rank; make me your servant anywhere at all. Whoever goes to Pandhari as a regular pilgrim, I would be born an animal in their household. Whoever meditates on Vitthal day and night, I would become the sandals on their feet. Whoever has a tulsi garden in their courtyard, I would be the broom that sweeps their house. Tuka says: this alone is the longing of my chitta; I want no other destiny. Bring all my other cravings to a halt and fix me to your own sweetness. Drive out hope, willing, thirst, and imagination; I am tangled in I and mine; cut off this false resolve of mine.
What it means
Tukaram measures devotion by how low he is willing to go, and keeps lowering the bar. He would rather be a servant, an animal, the sandals on the feet, the broom in the house of anyone who loves Vitthal than hold any high place of his own. The drive of the poem is a complete refusal of status: caste, lineage, and rank mean nothing against nearness to God's lovers. His only longing is to be fixed to that sweetness, so he asks God to halt every other craving, hope, thirst, and fantasy, and to cut the knot of I and mine that keeps him tangled. The lowest place near the devotees is the highest thing he can imagine wanting.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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