Devotion, God dances to the lover's whim
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भाविकां हें वर्म सांपडलें निकें । सेविती कवतुकें धणीवरि ॥1॥
इिच्छतील तैसा नाचे त्यांचे छंदें । वंदिती तीं पदें सकुमारें ॥ध्रु.॥
विसरले मुक्ती भक्तिअभिळासें । ओढत सरिसें सुखा आलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं मागायाची आस । पांडुरंग त्यांस विसंबेना ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The devoted ones have found the true secret and serve with delight to their full satisfaction. He dances to their whim; they worship His tender feet with adoration. In their love for devotion, they have forgotten about liberation; that too has been drawn in along with them. Says Tuka, they have no desire to ask for anything; Panduranga never leaves their side.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The devoted ones have found the true secret, and they serve with delight until they are full. He dances however they please, to their own tune; they worship his tender feet with love. In their love for devotion, they have forgotten about liberation; it too has been drawn in along with them. Tuka says: they have no wish to ask for anything; Panduranga never leaves their side.
What it means
Tukaram describes the open secret the true devotees have discovered: love itself is the whole of it, and they drink it to the full. He turns the usual picture upside down, where God moves at his servants' delight rather than the other way around. They have stopped even wanting liberation; absorbed in love, they pulled it along behind them without trying. Because they ask for nothing, Panduranga stays beside them always. The reward of asking nothing is that nothing leaves you.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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