Devotion, carried through every birth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पािळलों पोसिलों जन्मजन्मांतरीं । वागविलों करीं धरोनियां ॥1॥
आतां काय माझा घडेल अव्हेर । मागें बहु दूर वागविलें ॥ध्रु.॥
नेदी वारा अंगीं लागों आघाताचा । घेतला ठायींचा भार माथां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बोल करितों आवडी । अविट ते चि गोडी अंतरींची ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have nourished and protected me through birth after birth, guiding me by the hand. Will You now forsake me? In the past You have carried me through vast distances. You do not let the wind of harm touch my body; You have taken the entire burden upon Your own head. Says Tuka, I speak these words with love; the sweetness within my heart is inexhaustible.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have raised me and fed me through birth after birth, leading me by the hand. Will you cast me off now, after carrying me so far already? You let no wind of harm touch my body; you took the whole weight onto your own head. Tuka says: I speak these words out of love; the sweetness within my heart never grows stale.
What it means
Tukaram appeals to a long history rather than a single moment of grace. God has reared and fed and led him not just in this life but across many births, so the question almost answers itself: after carrying him this far, surely God will not abandon him now. The protection is total, no harmful wind allowed to touch him, the whole burden taken onto God's own head. He ends by naming his own motive plainly: these are not bargaining words but words of love, springing from an inner sweetness that, unlike worldly pleasures, never goes flat.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →