Intimacy, the Mother is never cold
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बैसों पाठमोरीं । मना वाटे तैसे करीं ॥1॥
परिं तूं जाणसीं आवडीं । बाळा बहुतांचीं परवडी ॥ध्रु.॥
आपुलाल्या इच्छा। मागों जया व्हावें जैशा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आई । नव्हसी उदास विठाई ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I may sit with my back turned and act as my mind pleases. But You know the love within; You are the Mother to many children. Each wants to ask according to his own desire and need. Says Tuka, You are not indifferent, O Mother Vithabai.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I may sit with my back turned to you and do as my mind pleases. But you know the love inside me. You are the Mother of many children. Each one asks for what he wants, in his own way and as he needs. Tuka says: you are never cold to me, Mother Vithabai.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the freedom of a child who can sulk and turn away and still be sure of the mother's heart. Even when he sits with his back turned and follows his own moods, he knows God reads the love hidden underneath the behavior. He pictures Vitthal as a mother to countless children, each of whom comes with his own clamor and his own particular need, and none of whom is turned away. The poem rests on the certainty named at the end: Mother Vithabai is never indifferent, whatever the child does.
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