Devotion, the child of the Mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
असोत लोकांचे बोल शिरावरी । माझी मज बरी विठाबाई ॥1॥
आपंगिलें मज आहे ते कृपाळु । बहुत कनवाळु अंतरींची ॥ध्रु.॥
वेदशास्त्रें जिसी वणिनती पुराणें । तिचें मी पोसणें लडिवाळ ॥2॥
जिचें नाम कामधेनु कल्पतरू । तिचें मी लेंकरूं तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let the words of the world rest upon my head; my Vithabai is good to me. She has embraced me; she is gracious, full of compassion from within. The Vedas, Shastras, and Puranas all sing her praise; I am her pampered child. She whose name is the Wish-fulfilling Cow and the Wish-granting Tree, Says Tuka, I am her little one.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let the words of people sit on my head; my Vithabai is good to me. She has taken me up; she is kind, full of mercy within. The Vedas, the Shastras, the Puranas all sing of her; I am her pampered child. Her name is the wish-granting cow, the wish-granting tree. Tuka says: I am her little one.
What it means
Tukaram answers slander with belonging. He lets the world's words rest on his head, neither fighting them nor minding them, because his standing does not come from people but from his Mother Vithabai. The scriptures that the world reveres are themselves only praising her, so her child has nothing to prove to anyone. He calls her Kamadhenu and Kalpataru, the cow and the tree that give whatever is asked, and then sets all that grandeur aside for one small word: he is simply her child. The poem's claim is that being held by God makes the opinion of the crowd weightless.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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