Intimacy, the child's babbling speech
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कवतुकवाणें । बोलों बोबडएा वचनें ॥1॥
हें तों नसावें अंतरीं । आह्मां धरायाचें दुरी ॥ध्रु.॥
स्तुति तैसी निंदा । माना सम चि गोविंदा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बोलें । मज तुह्मी शिकविलें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I speak playful, babbling words like a child. But let this not create any distance between us; do not hold us away because of it. Praise and blame, O Govinda, consider them equal. Says Tuka, it is You who taught me to speak this way.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
For the joy of it, I speak in babbling, childish words. Do not let this come between us in Your heart; do not hold me at a distance for it. Praise and blame, O Govinda, count them the same. Tuka says: it was You who taught me to speak this way.
What it means
Tukaram offers his rough, playful speech as a child's babble and asks that it not become a wall between him and God. He fears God taking offense and keeping him at arm's length, so he pleads for that not to happen. Then he asks God to hold praise and blame as equal, refusing to weigh his words on a scale of merit. The disarming close puts the responsibility back on God: if Tukaram speaks so freely and even rudely, it is because God himself taught him this childlike, unguarded way of talking.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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