Absorption, lost in the form
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रूपीं जडले लोचन । पायीं िस्थरावलें मन ॥1॥
देहभाव हरपला । तुज पाहातां विठ्ठला ॥ध्रु.॥
कळों नये सुखदुःख। तान हरपली भूक ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नव्हे परती । तुझ्या दर्शनें मागुती ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My eyes are fixed upon Your form, and my mind has become steady at Your feet. All sense of body has been lost in beholding You, Vitthal. Neither pleasure nor pain is felt, and hunger and thirst have vanished. Says Tuka, I shall not turn back from Your sight ever again.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My eyes are stuck to your form. My mind has come to rest at your feet. The sense of having a body is gone, while I look at you, Vitthal. I cannot tell pleasure from pain. Thirst and hunger have vanished. Tuka says: I will not turn back. Once I have seen you, I will not look away again.
What it means
Tukaram is describing what happens when sight of God takes hold completely. His eyes fasten on Vitthal's form and his restless mind finally settles at the feet; in that looking, the constant pull of the body drops away. With it go the ordinary measures of life, the swing between pleasure and pain, the press of hunger and thirst, all dissolved in the seeing. The closing vow is the point: having once been given this darshan, he refuses ever to turn back from it.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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