Devotion, the one stable shelter
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दुःखाची संगति । तिच्याठायीं कोण प्रीति ॥1॥
अवघें असो हें निराळें । करूं सोइरें सावळें ॥ध्रु.॥
क्षणभंगुर ते ठाव। करूनि सांडावे चि वाव ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बरा । ठाव पावलों हा थारा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who would love the company of sorrow? Let all of that stand apart. Let us befriend the beautiful dark One. Those shelters that crumble in a moment should be built up and abandoned just the same. Says Tuka, I have arrived at a good and stable resting place.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Who would love the company of sorrow? Let all of that stand aside. Let us make a friend of the beautiful dark One. The shelters that break in a moment are built up only to be thrown away. Tuka says: it is well; I have reached a good and steady resting place.
What it means
Tukaram weighs the company he keeps against the place he has finally found. He refuses to love sorrow and sets aside everything that crumbles, choosing instead to befriend the dark and beautiful Lord. He sees clearly that every worldly shelter is momentary, raised up only to be discarded, so resting in them is wasted labor. The poem closes in quiet relief: he has arrived at the one resting place that does not break, and that is enough.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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