Devotion, mind entangled at His feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ऐका हें वचन माझें संतजन । विनवितों जोडुन कर तुह्मां ॥1॥
तर्क करूनियां आपुल्या भावना । बोलतिया जना कोण वारी ॥ध्रु.॥
आमुच्या जीवींचा तो चि जाणे भावो । रकुमाईचा नाहो पांडुरंग ॥2॥
चित्त माझें त्याचे गुंतलेंसे पायीं । ह्मणऊनि कांहीं नावडे त्या ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मज न साहे मीनती । खेद होय चित्तीं भंग मना ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Hear these words of mine, O saintly ones. I entreat you with folded hands. Those who speak from their own fancies and speculations, who can stop them? Only He knows the true feeling in our chitta: Panduranga, the lord of Rukmini. My mind is entangled at His feet; therefore nothing else appeals to me. Says Tuka, I cannot bear entreaties from others; it pains my chitta and disturbs my mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Hear these words of mine, O saintly ones. I beg you with folded hands. Those who speak from their own guesses and fancies, who can stop them? Only He knows the true feeling in my heart: Panduranga, the lord of Rukmini. My mind is caught at His feet. That is why nothing else pleases me. Tuka says: I cannot bear the pleadings of others. They grieve my heart and break my mind.
What it means
Tukaram appeals to the saints with folded hands, the gesture of a man defending something dear to him. He admits he cannot silence people who judge from their own assumptions, so he stops arguing with them and turns to the one witness who matters. Only Panduranga, the lord of Rukmini, knows the real feeling in his heart, and that feeling is total: his mind is so entangled at God's feet that nothing else can attract him. Because of this single attachment he cannot bear the pleadings or pressures of others pulling him elsewhere, since they only wound and unsettle a heart already given away.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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