Invitation to the kirtan, a golden day
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
या रे गडे हो धरूं घाई जाणतां ही नेणतां । नाम गाऊं टाळी वाहूं आपुलिया हिता ॥१॥
फावलें तें घ्यारे आतां प्रेमदाता पांडुरंग । आजि सोनियाचा दिवस सोनियाचा वोडवला रंग ॥ध्रु.॥
हिंडती रानोरान भुजंगांत कांट्यावन । सुख तयांहून आम्हां गातां नाचतां रे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे ब्रम्हादिकां सांवळें दुर्लभ सुखा । आजि येथें आलें फुका नाम मुखा कीर्तनीं ॥३॥
भीमातीरीं एक वसलें नगर । त्याचें नांव पंढरपुर रे ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Come, friends, let us take up the game together, the knowing and the unknowing alike. Let us sing the Name and clap our hands for our own true good. Seize what is freely offered now, for the giver of love is Panduranga. Today is a golden day; a golden color has dawned upon us. Those who wander through forests and thorny thickets suffer, while we know greater happiness simply by singing and dancing. Says Tuka, this dark-complexioned joy is hard to attain even for Brahma and the gods, yet today it has come freely into our mouths in this kirtan. On the banks of the Bhima stands a city; its name is Pandharpur.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Come, friends, let us take up the game together, the knowing and the unknowing alike. Let us sing the Name and clap our hands for our own good. Seize what is freely offered now, for Panduranga is the giver of love. Today is a golden day; a golden color has dawned on us. Those who wander through forests and thorny thickets suffer, while we know greater happiness simply by singing and dancing. Tuka says: this dark-hued joy is hard for even Brahma and the gods to reach, yet today it has come to our mouths for nothing, in this kirtan. On the bank of the Bhima stands a city; its name is Pandharpur.
What it means
This is an open invitation that deliberately makes no distinction between the learned and the simple; both are called to the same singing. Tukaram's urgency is in the word seize: love is being given away free right now, so take it while the golden day lasts. He sets the kirtan against the harder roads to God, the wandering ascetics among thorns, and claims the singers have the better portion with far less pain. The sharp turn is that the dark-complexioned joy of Krishna, which even Brahma and the gods strain to reach, arrives in an ordinary devotee's mouth for nothing at all, simply by chanting. Grace, not effort, is the giver.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →