Devotion, asking for rebirth not release
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पांडुरंगा कांहीं आइकावी मात । न करावें मुक्त आतां मज ॥1॥
जन्मांतरें मज तैसीं देई देवा । जेणें चरणसेवा घडे तुझी ॥ध्रु.॥
वाखाणीन कीर्ती आपुलिया मुखें । नाचेन मी सुखें तुजपुढें ॥2॥
करूनि कामारी दास दीनाहुनी । आपुला अंगणीं ठाव मज ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी मृत्युलोकीं भले । तुझे चि अंखिले पांडुरंगा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O Panduranga, hear my plea: do not grant me liberation. Give me birth after birth, O God, so that the service of Your feet may continue. I will praise Your glory with my own lips and dance with joy before You. Make me a servant, humbler than the humblest; give me a place in Your own courtyard. Says Tuka, here in this mortal world we are content; we are Yours and Yours alone, O Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Panduranga, hear my plea. Do not grant me liberation now. Give me birth after birth, O God, so that I may serve your feet. I will praise your glory with my own lips. I will dance before you in joy. Make me a servant, lower than the lowest; give me a place in your own courtyard. Tuka says: here in this mortal world we are content. We are yours, only yours, Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram is asking God for the opposite of what most seekers want. He refuses moksha and begs instead for birth after birth, because release would end his service at Vitthal's feet. The thing he is afraid of losing is not life but nearness; he would rather be born again as the lowest servant in God's courtyard than escape the world and lose that. So he names the mortal world as the very place where his love can act, singing, dancing, serving, and he is content to stay in it as long as he belongs to Panduranga.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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