Singing freely, God is simple
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळेल हें तैसें गाईन मी तुज । जनासवें काज काय माझें ॥1॥
करीन मी स्तुती आपुले आवडी । जैसी माझ्या गोडी वाटे जीवा ॥ध्रु.॥
होऊनी निर्भर नाचेन मी छंदें । आपुल्या आनंदें करूनियां ॥2॥
काय करूं कळा युक्ती या कुसरी । जाणिवेच्या परी सकिळका ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे माझें जयासवें काज । भोळा तो सहज पांडुरंग ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I will sing of You as best I can; what business do I have with the opinion of the world? I will offer praise according to my own love, as sweetness fills my jiva. I will become carefree and dance to my own rhythm, rejoicing in my own bliss. What use are cleverness, strategy, or skill? All such knowing has its limits. Says Tuka, my dealings are with the One who is simple and straightforward: Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I will sing of you as well as I can. What business do I have with what people think? I will praise you the way my own love wants, however the sweetness rises in my jiva. I will let go of all care and dance to my own rhythm, glad in my own joy. What use are cleverness, tricks, and skill? All such knowing has its limits. Tuka says: the one I deal with is simple and plain, Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram defends a worship that owes nothing to performance or to the audience. He will sing as best he can, by his own love and his own joy, and the world's opinion is none of his concern. He throws away cleverness, strategy, and technical skill, because all knowing runs into a wall, while love does not. The reason he can be this artless is the nature of the one he serves: Panduranga is bhola, simple and straightforward, so plain devotion is the right coin and clever display is wasted on him.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →