Devotion, nothing stronger than feeling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भावापुढें बळ । नाहीं कोणाचे सबळ ॥1॥
करी देवावरी सत्ता । कोण त्याहूनि परता ॥ध्रु.॥
बैसे तेथें येती । न पाचारितां सर्व शक्ति ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे राहे । तयाकडे कोण पाहे॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
No force is mightier than devotion. It commands authority over God Himself; who can surpass that? Where devotion sits, all powers come unbidden. Says Tuka, who even looks at the one who lacks devotion?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
No strength is mightier than devotion. It holds command over God Himself; who is greater than that? Where devotion sits down, every power comes to it unsummoned. Tuka says: but the one who has no devotion, who even bothers to look at him?
What it means
Tukaram makes a flat claim about where real power lies, and it is not where the world looks for it. Devotion, bhava, outranks every force, because it can lay a claim even on God and bend Him toward the devotee; no greater authority exists. Where such devotion takes its seat, all other powers arrive on their own, uncalled. The sharp last line is aimed not at any particular person but at the condition itself: a life without this devotion is so empty of value that nothing and no one turns to look at it.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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