Devotion, the settled pact
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मी घ्यावें तुझें नाम । तुह्मी आह्मां द्यावें प्रेम॥1॥
ऐसें निवडिलें मुळीं । संतीं बैसोनि सकळीं ॥ध्रु.॥
माझी डोई पायांवरी । तुह्मी न धरावी दुरी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे केला । खंड दोघांचा विठ्ठला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We shall take Your name; You shall give us love. This was settled long ago by all the saints together. My head rests upon Your feet; do not push me away. Says Tuka, the division between us both has been resolved, O Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We are to take Your name; You are to give us love. This was decided long ago, all the saints sitting together and choosing it. My head rests on Your feet; do not push me away. Tuka says: the division between the two of us is over, O Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram treats devotion as a settlement reached long before him, agreed by the whole assembly of saints. The terms are clean and binding: the devotees chant the Name, and God in return gives love. On the strength of that old pact he lays his head at the feet and asks God not to keep him at a distance, since the arrangement leaves no room for distance. The closing line says the separation between devotee and God has been dissolved, not as a thing Tuka achieved alone but as the natural result of an agreement the saints made and God is bound to honor.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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