Single love, only your name
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आणिक मात माझ्या नावडे जीवासी । काय करूं यासी पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
मुखा तें चि गोड श्रवणां आवडी । चित्त माझें ओढी तुझे पायीं ॥ध्रु.॥
जये पदीं नाहीं विठ्ठलाचें नाम । मज होती श्रम आइकतां ॥2॥
आणिकाचें मज ह्मणवितां लाज । वाटे हें सहज न बोलावें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मज तूं च आवडसी । सर्वभावेंविसीं पांडुरंगा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
No other word pleases my jiva, O Panduranga. Only this is sweet to my lips, only this do my ears delight in; my chitta is drawn only to Your feet. Any verse that does not contain Vitthal's name wearies me to hear. I feel ashamed to be called a devotee of anyone else; it does not feel natural to even speak of it. Says Tuka, You alone delight me in every way, O Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
No other word pleases my jiva, O Panduranga. What am I to do about this? Only this is sweet on my lips; only this my ears want to hear; my chitta is pulled toward your feet. Any verse without Vitthal's name wearies me to hear. I feel ashamed to be called anyone else's; it does not feel natural even to say it. Tuka says: you alone delight me, in every way, O Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram describes a love that has narrowed to one object until everything else falls away. His mouth, his ears, and his mind all want the same thing: Vitthal's name and Vitthal's feet, and no other speech tastes good to him. The claim sharpens into exclusion: a verse without that name tires him, and being named as anyone else's devotee feels shameful and unnatural. He is not boasting of discipline but confessing a pull he cannot help. In every way, the one delight is Panduranga and no other.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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