The Name, God comes running
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाचारितां धावे । ऐसी ठायींची हे सवे ॥1॥
बोले करुणा वचनीं । करी कृपा लावी स्तनीं ॥ध्रु.॥
जाणे कळवळा । भावसिद्धींचा जिव्हाळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाम । मागें मागें धांवे प्रेम॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When called, He comes running; that is His nature from the very beginning. He speaks words of compassion, He bestows grace, He nurses like a mother. He knows the innermost yearning, the living warmth of a devotion fulfilled from within. Says Tuka, when the Name is uttered, love comes running close behind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When you call him, he comes running. That has been his way from the very start. He speaks words of mercy; he shows kindness; he holds you to the breast like a mother. He knows your inmost ache, the warmth of a love made true from within. Tuka says: when the Name is spoken, love comes running close behind.
What it means
Tukaram is naming the nature of God as a mother who cannot help but come. Calling is enough; God's settled habit is to run to the one who cries out, to speak tenderly and to nurse the soul at the breast. What moves him is not ritual correctness but the inner ache of genuine devotion, which he reads exactly. The last line lands the claim: utter the Name and you do not get the Name only, for love itself comes running right behind it.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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