Devotion, the feet that cure existence
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जीवन उपाय । वैदेवाणी तुझे पाय ॥1॥
ते मी नाठवीं घडिघडी । ह्मणोनियां चरफडीं ॥ध्रु.॥
तुटे भवरोग । जेथें सर्व सुखें भोग ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विटे । धरियेले जें गोमटें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your feet are the remedy and the sustenance, the physician's true prescription. That I do not remember them every moment is why I writhe in anguish. Where the disease of worldly existence is cured, there all joys are found. Says Tuka, what has been held upon the sacred brick is truly beautiful.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your feet are the remedy and the life, the physician's true cure. That I do not remember them moment by moment is why I writhe in anguish. There the disease of worldly existence is broken, and there every joy is found. Tuka says: what is held upon the brick is the truly beautiful thing.
What it means
Tukaram speaks of God's feet as medicine for the deepest sickness, the disease of worldly existence itself. He confesses that his suffering comes from his own failure to keep them in mind at every moment, so the anguish is self-inflicted, not God's withholding. Where those feet are found, the disease is cured and all true joy lies. He ends by pointing to the feet of Vitthal standing on the brick at Pandhari and calling that the one truly beautiful thing, the cure worth holding to.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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