Devotion, the knot of bondage undone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रूपें गोविलें चित्त । पायीं राहिलें नििंश्चत ॥1॥
तुह्मीं देवा अवघे चि गोमटे । मुख देखतां दुःख न भेटे ॥ध्रु.॥
जाली इंिद्रयां विश्रांति । भ्रमतां पीडत ते होतीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भेटी । सुटली भवबंदाची गांठी ॥3॥ ॥20॥
स्वामींनीं तेरा दिवस निद्रा केली. मग भगवंतें येऊन समाधान केलें कीं,
कवित्व कोरडें आहे तें काढणें उदकांतून
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your form has captivated my chitta; the mind rests securely at Your feet. O God, You are entirely beautiful; upon seeing Your face, sorrow disappears. The senses have found rest, they who were tormented while wandering. Says Tuka, in Your meeting, the knot of worldly bondage has come undone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your form has caught my mind. It rests at Your feet, without a doubt. You, God, are wholly beautiful; when I see Your face, no sorrow meets me. The senses have found rest, the same senses that were tormented while they wandered. Tuka says: in this meeting, the knot of worldly bondage has come loose.
What it means
Tukaram describes what happens when the wandering mind finally settles. The beauty of God's form has captured his attention and fixed it securely at the feet. Looking on that face, sorrow simply does not reach him, and the senses that suffered in their restless roaming now come to rest. The meeting itself does the work: the tight knot of worldly bondage unties on its own. Devotion here is not effort but release, the natural quieting of everything that once wandered and ached.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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