Devotion, my joy is Your joy
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मज कोणी कांहीं करी । उमटे तुमचे अंतरीं ॥1॥
व्याला वाडविलें ह्मुण । मज सुख तुज सीण ॥ध्रु.॥
माझें पोट धालें। तुझे अंगीं उमटलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे खेळें । तेथें तुमचिया बळें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whatever anyone does to me, it is felt within You. Having nurtured and raised me, my happiness is Your happiness, and my trouble is Your trouble. When my belly is full, the signs show on Your body. Says Tuka, I play only by the strength of Your power.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever anyone does to me, it shows up inside You. You bore me and raised me, so my comfort is Your comfort and my weariness is Your strain. When my stomach is full, the sign of it appears on Your body. Tuka says: whatever I play at, I play by Your strength.
What it means
Tukaram describes a bond so complete that he and God no longer have separate fortunes. What is done to him registers in God; because God brought him into being and raised him, the devotee's ease and exhaustion are felt as God's own. Even his full belly shows on God's body, the way a nursing mother's child being fed shows in her. The closing line names the ground of all this: every move Tuka makes, every game he plays, draws on God's strength, not his own. He is claiming the helplessness and the safety of a child who knows the parent will feel and supply everything.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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