Devotion, God the unyielding landlord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पिकल्या सेताचा आह्मां देतो वांटा । चौधरी गोमटा पांडुरंग ॥1॥
सत्तर टके बाकी उरली मागे तो हा । मागें झडले दाहा आजिवरी ॥ध्रु.॥
हांडा भांडीं गुरें दाखवी ऐवज । माजघरीं बाजे बैसलासे ॥2॥
मज यासी भांडतां जाब नेदी बळें । ह्मणे एका वेळे घ्याल वांटा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे िस्त्रये काय वो करावें । नेदितां लपावें काय कोठें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Panduranga, our fine landlord, gives us a share of the ripe harvest. Seventy percent of the debt remains from the past; only ten has been settled so far. He shows us the pots, vessels, and cattle as assets, while He sits like a lord in the inner room. When I try to argue with Him, He overpowers me and says: you will get your share all at once. Says Tuka, O wife, what can be done? When He will not give, where can it be hidden?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Panduranga, our fine headman, gives us a share of the ripened field. Seventy percent of the debt still stands from before; only ten has been cleared so far. He shows off the pots, the vessels, the cattle as my assets, while he sits like a lord in the inner room. When I try to argue with him, he overpowers me and says: you will get your whole share at once. Tuka says: O wife, what is to be done? When he will not give, where can anything be hidden?
What it means
Tukaram plays out the relationship with God as a tenant farmer's dealings with a powerful landlord, and the comedy carries the surrender. God gives only a share of the harvest, keeps most of the old debt outstanding, parades the devotee's few possessions as collateral, and rules from the inner room beyond reach. Every argument is overruled with the promise that the full settlement will come all at once, on God's timing, not the tenant's. The closing turn to the wife is the resignation underneath the joke: with such a master there is nothing to be done and nothing can be hidden from him. Even the grumbling is a form of belonging to him completely.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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