Devotion, the ease of love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रीतिचिया बोला नाहीं पेसपाड । भलतसें गोड करूनि घेई ॥1॥
तैसें विठ्ठलराया तुज मज आहे । आवडीनें गायें नाम तुझें ॥ध्रु.॥
वेडे वांकडे बाळकाचे बोल । करिती नवल मायबाप ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुज येवो माझी दया । जीवींच्या सखया जिवलगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Between those who love one another, there is no awkwardness of speech; whatever is said, love makes it sweet. So it is between You and me, O Vitthal; with love I sing Your Name. A child's crooked, lisping words are a wonder and delight to its parents. Says Tuka, may You feel tender compassion for me, O companion of my jiva, my dearest one.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Between those who love each other there is no awkwardness in speech; whatever is said, love makes it sweet. So it is between you and me, O Vitthal; with delight I sing your Name. A child's crooked, lisping words are a wonder to its mother and father. Tuka says: let your compassion come to me, O friend of my soul, my dearest one.
What it means
Tukaram describes the freedom that love gives to prayer. Where there is real affection, speech need not be polished; love sweetens whatever is said, and so he sings the Name however it comes. He likens himself to a small child whose broken, half-formed words delight its parents precisely because they are the child's own. On that ground he asks for grace, not as a stranger pleading with a distant power, but as one calling the closest friend of his soul. The poem reframes devotion as intimacy: God does not weigh our words, he loves the one who speaks them.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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