Devotion, refusing the scorners
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विठ्ठल मुक्तिदाता । नव्हे मरो हें बोलता ॥1॥
मज न साहावें कानीं । विष उत्तर लागे मनीं ॥ध्रु.॥
हरीकथेतें धीकारी । शत्रु माझा तो वैरी ॥2॥
सुना काळतोंडा । जो या देवा ह्मणे धोंडा॥3॥
अहं ह्मणे ब्रह्म । नेणे भक्तीचें तें वर्म ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे क्षण। नको तयाचें दर्षण ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Vitthal is the giver of liberation. Whoever denies this, let that speaker perish. I cannot bear to hear such poisonous words; they wound my mind. One who scorns the story of Hari is my enemy and foe. Dark-mouthed and wretched is the one who calls this God a mere stone. The one who says I am Brahman, yet does not know the secret of devotion. Says Tuka, I do not wish even a moment's sight of such a person.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Vitthal is the giver of liberation. Whoever says otherwise, let that speaker perish. I cannot bear such words in my ears; the poison of them sticks in my mind. One who scorns the story of Hari is my enemy and my foe. Dark-mouthed and wretched is the one who calls this God a mere stone. So too the one who says I am Brahman yet does not know the secret of devotion. Tuka says: not even for a moment do I want the sight of such a person.
What it means
Tukaram draws a hard line around what he will and will not tolerate near him. For him Vitthal is the giver of release, and to deny it, to mock the telling of Hari's story, or to dismiss the temple image as just a stone is a poison he cannot stand to hear. He names a particular target: the one who proclaims I am Brahman while remaining blind to the secret of bhakti, mistaking a slogan of identity for the real thing. The harshness is aimed at the contempt itself, the stance that scorns devotion. From such company Tukaram wants distance, not even a moment's sight of it.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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