Devotion, God and devotee bound as one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्त देवाघरचा सुना । देव भक्ताचा पोसणा ॥1॥
येर येरां जडलें कैसें । जीवा अंगें जैसें तैसें ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका ह्मणे अंगें । एक एकाचिया संगें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The devotee is like a daughter-in-law in God's household, and God is sustained by the devotee's love. How inseparably they are joined to each other, just as the jiva is bound to the body. Says Tuka, they are one with each other, each living in the other's company.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The devotee is the daughter-in-law in God's house; God is the foster-child the devotee feeds. See how the two are fastened to each other, just as the soul is to the body. Tuka says: in their very being, each lives in the company of the other.
What it means
Tukaram describes the bond between God and devotee as a mutual dependence. The devotee belongs in God's household like a daughter-in-law, and God is nourished by the devotee like a child the devotee raises and feeds; the need runs both ways. He compares their union to the way the soul and the body are inseparably joined, neither one able to stand apart. The closing line drives it home: in their very being the two are one, each living always in the other's company.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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