Pandhari, the free bazaar of love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तिन्ही लोक ॠणें बांधिले जयानें । सर्वसििद्ध केणें तये घरीं ॥1॥
पंढरीचोहोटां घातला दुकान । मांडियेले वान आवडीचे ॥ध्रु.॥
आषाढी कातिनकी भरियेले हाट । इनाम हे पेंठ घेतां देतां ॥2॥
मुक्ति कोणी तेथें हातीं नेघे फुका । लुटितील सुखा प्रेमाचिया ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे संतसज्जन भाग्याचें । अनंतां जन्मींचे सांटेकरी ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The One who has bound all three worlds in His debt, in whose household every fulfillment resides, has opened a shop at the crossroads of Pandhari, displaying wares of every desire. At the great fairs of Ashadhi and Kartiki, the marketplace overflows; it is a free bazaar of giving and receiving. No one there picks up liberation even for free; instead, they plunder the joy of divine love. Says Tuka, the saints and the virtuous are fortune's own; they have been gathering this treasure across countless births.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He has bound all three worlds in his debt. Every fulfillment lives in his house. At the crossroads of Pandhari he has opened a shop and laid out the wares everyone desires. At the great fairs of Ashadhi and Kartiki the market overflows; here giving and taking are free. No one there reaches for liberation, even when it costs nothing. They plunder the joy of love instead. Tuka says: the saints and the good are fortune's own; across countless births they have been gathering at this market.
What it means
Tukaram pictures Vitthal's Pandhari as a marketplace where the usual prices are reversed. God owns everything and owes nothing, yet he sets up a free shop and stocks it with whatever any heart could want. At the great pilgrim fairs the stalls overflow, and the goods are given away. The radical claim is in what the crowd does: offered liberation for nothing, no one bothers to pick it up, because they would rather seize the joy of love, which they rate higher than release itself. The saints are the lucky traders who have been coming to this fair lifetime after lifetime.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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