Devotion, life sold at the feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझे अंतरींचें तो चि जाणे एक । वैकुंठनायक पांडुरंग ॥1॥
जीव भाव त्याचे ठेवियेला पायीं । मज चिंता नाहीं कवणेविशीं ॥ध्रु.॥
सुखसमारंभें संतसमागमें । गाऊं वाचे नाम विठोबाचें ॥2॥
गातां पुण्य होय आइकतां लाभ । संसारबंद तुटतील ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे जीव तयासी विकिला । आणीक विठ्ठलाविण नेणें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Only He, the Lord of Vaikuntha, Panduranga, knows the depths of my chitta. Having placed my life and love at His feet, I have no worry of any kind. In the joyful company of the saints, let us sing the name of Vithoba with our lips. Singing brings merit, listening brings gain, and the bonds of worldly life are cut. Says Tuka, I have sold my jiva to Him; I know nothing and no one besides Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Only he knows what is inside me, the Lord of Vaikuntha, Panduranga. I have laid my life and my heart at his feet. So I have no worry about anything. In the glad company of the saints, let us sing the name of Vithoba with our tongues. Singing it brings merit; hearing it brings gain; the bonds of worldly life are cut. Tuka says: I have sold my life to him. I know no one and nothing besides Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram has handed his whole inner life over to God and found that the handover itself ends his anxiety. Because Panduranga alone knows what is in his heart, and because that heart now rests at God's feet, there is nothing left for Tukaram to manage or fear. The practice that carries this is the Name, sung among the saints: he claims it works on singer and listener alike, earning merit and severing the knots of samsara. The final line is the strongest: he has not lent or pledged his life but sold it outright, so that Vitthal is now the only one he knows.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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