Welcoming the messengers, body offered
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्षेम मायबाप पुसेन हें आधीं । न घलीं हें मधीं सुख दुःख ॥1॥
न करीं तांतडी आपणांपासूनि । आइकेन कानीं सांगतीं तें ॥ध्रु.॥
अंतरींचें संत जाणतील गूज । निरोप तो मज सांगतील॥2॥
पायांवरी डोई ठेवीन आदरें । प्रीतिपडिभरें आिंळगून ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे काया करीन कुरवंडी । ओवाळून सांडीं त्यांवरून ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
First I will ask after my Father and Mother; I will not let joy or sorrow come between. I will not hurry on my own account but listen patiently to whatever they tell. The saints will know the inner secret; they will bring me the true message. I will bow my head at their feet with love and embrace them tenderly. Says Tuka, I will offer my body as a sacrifice, waving it over them in adoration.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
First I will ask after my Father and Mother; I will not let joy or sorrow come between. I will not hurry for my own sake but listen to whatever they tell me. The saints know the secret of the heart; they will bring me the true message. I will lay my head on their feet with respect, and embrace them with the fullness of love. Tuka says: I will make my body an offering, waving it over them and casting it away.
What it means
Tukaram rehearses how he will receive the returning saints, and he puts the welcome above himself. His first question is not about his own state but after his Father and Mother, the divine parents at the home he longs for, and he refuses to let his own joy or sorrow crowd that in. He bows at the saints' feet because they alone carry the inner message from God. The last line is the strongest: he will treat his own body as a thing to be waved over them and thrown away, the gesture of warding off harm with a worthless object. The messengers from God are worth more to him than his own life.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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