Nature of God, debtor to His devotees
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जाय तेथें दाटी । वैष्णवांची धांवोनि ॥1॥
भाविक गे माये भोळें गुणाचें। आवडे तयाचें नाम घेतां तयासी ॥ध्रु.॥
जो नातुडे कवणिये परी । तपें दानें व्रतें थोरी ।
ह्मणतां वाचे हरि । राम कृष्ण गोविंदा ॥2॥
चौदा भुवनें जया पोटीं । तो राहे भक्तांचिये कंठीं ।
करूनियां साटी। चित्त प्रेम दोहींची ॥3॥
जया रूप ना आकार । धरी नाना अवतार ।
घेतलीं हजार । नांवें ठेवूनि आपणां ॥4॥
ऐसा भक्तांचा ॠणी । पाहातां आगमीं पुराणीं ।
नाहीं तुका ह्मणे ध्यानीं । तो कीर्तनीं नाचतसे ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Wherever the Vaishnavas gather, He rushes to be there. He is innocent, O Mother, simple in His virtues; He loves it when they take His name. He who cannot be reached by penance, charity, or vows, comes simply when the tongue says Hari, Rama, Krishna, Govinda. He in whose belly the fourteen worlds reside dwells in the throats of His devotees, exchanging love for love. He who has no form or shape takes countless incarnations and gives Himself a thousand names. Says Tuka, He is thus indebted to His devotees; though He cannot be held in meditation, He dances at the kirtan.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Wherever the Vaishnavas gather, He comes running to be there. He is trusting, O Mother, simple and good; He loves it when they take His name. He who cannot be caught by penance, by charity, by great vows comes when the tongue only says Hari, Rama, Krishna, Govinda. He who holds the fourteen worlds in his belly lives in the throats of his devotees, trading love for love. He who has no form and no shape takes on many incarnations and gives himself a thousand names. Tuka says: so He is in debt to his devotees; he cannot be held in meditation, yet he dances at the kirtan.
What it means
Tukaram turns the usual order of religion upside down. The God the great disciplines cannot reach, penance and charity and vows, comes running at the bare sound of his Name on a loving tongue. He makes God almost helpless before love: trusting, simple, drawn to those who call him. The poem holds together God's vastness, the fourteen worlds inside him, the formless one beyond shape, with his smallness, living in a devotee's throat, dancing in the song. The startling claim is the last: this God puts himself in debt to those who love him, and chooses the kirtan over the meditation that cannot grasp him.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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