Mock-refusal, I lack nothing
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नेघें तुझें नाम । न करीं सांगितलें काम ॥1॥
वाढे वचनें वचन । दोष उच्चारितां गुण ॥ध्रु.॥
आतां तुझ्या घरा । कोण करी येरझारा ॥2 ॥
तुका ह्मणे ठायीं । मजपाशीं काय नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I will not take Your name; I will not do the work You assign. Words breed words, and faults multiply when one tries to speak of virtues. Now who will keep making trips to Your door? Says Tuka, do I not have everything already here with me?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I will not take Your name; I will not do the work You give me. Words only breed more words, and faults multiply when you try to speak of virtues. Now who will keep making trips to Your door? Tuka says: do I not have everything already, right here with me?
What it means
This is a teasing refusal, a lover's bluff rather than real apostasy. Tukaram pretends to quit the relationship: no more taking the Name, no more errands at God's command, no more wearing a path to God's door. His complaint is that talk leads only to more talk, and that trying to praise God's virtues somehow only stirs up faults. But the closing line gives the game away: he says he already has everything with him. The point is that God is not somewhere else to be visited or served at a distance; the fullness the devotee was running toward is already present where he stands.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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