Devotion to the saints, the only rite
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संत गाती हरिकीर्त्तनीं । त्यांचें घेइन पायवणी ॥1॥
हें चि तप तीर्थ माझें । आणीक मी नेणें दुजें ॥ध्रु.॥
काया कुरवंडी करीन । संत महंत ओंवाळीन ॥2॥
संत महंत माझी पूजा । अनुभाव नाहीं दुजा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे नेणें कांहीं । अवघें आहे संतापायीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the saints sing in Hari's kirtan, I shall take the dust of their feet. This alone is my pilgrimage, my austerity; I know no other. I will sacrifice my body as an offering and wave it as a lamp before the saints and holy ones. The saints are my worship; I know no other practice. Says Tuka, I know nothing else; everything resides at the feet of the saints.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the saints sing in Hari's kirtan, I will take the water that washed their feet. This alone is my austerity, my holy pilgrimage; I know no other. I will offer up my body for them; I will wave it as a lamp before the saints and the great ones. The saints and the great ones are my worship; I have no other experience. Tuka says: I know nothing else. Everything is there at the feet of the saints.
What it means
Tukaram collapses all religious practice into devotion to the saints. The water that has washed their feet is his whole pilgrimage and austerity; he claims no other. He offers his very body, waving it before the saints and the holy ones as one waves a lamp in worship, and says plainly that the saints themselves are his only object of worship and his only spiritual experience. The poem's force is in its exclusiveness: he refuses every other rite. For Tukaram, the whole of the path rests at the feet of the saints.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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