Humility, the dog at the master's feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
श्वाना दिली सवे । पायांभोंवतें तें भोंवे ॥1॥
तैसी जाली मज परी । वसे निकट सेजारीं ॥ध्रु.॥
जेवितां जवळी । येऊनियां पुंस घोळी ॥2॥
कोपेल तो घनी । तुका ह्मणे नेणें मनीं॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A dog is given companionship and it circles around one's feet. That is exactly my condition: You dwell close beside me, right next door. When I sit down to eat You come near, wagging and fawning. Says Tuka, whether the master is angry or not, the dog does not take it to mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Give a dog a little kindness and it keeps circling your feet. That is just my condition: You live close beside me, right next door. When I sit to eat, You come near, wagging and fawning. Tuka says: whether the master is angry or not, the dog does not hold it in its mind.
What it means
Tukaram makes himself the dog and God the close neighbor whose company he cannot leave. A dog that has once been shown affection circles its master's feet and crowds in at mealtime, hoping and fawning; that, he says, is exactly how he hangs about God. The point of the image is the dog's trust: it does not brood over whether the master is pleased or angry, it simply stays near. Tukaram is naming the kind of devotion that does not keep score of God's moods but clings to nearness itself, free of calculation.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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