Devotion, I will not let go
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुह्मी कांटाळलां तरी । आह्मां न सोडणें हरी ॥1॥
जावें कवणिया ठाया । सांगा विनवितों पायां ॥ध्रु.॥
केली जिवा साटी । आतां सुखें लागा पाठी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ठाव । न सोडणें हा चि भाव ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Even if You grow weary, O Hari, we will not let You go. Where else should we turn? I ask this at Your feet. I have staked my very life on this; now You may gladly pursue me. Says Tuka, this is my fixed resolve: I will not abandon this place.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Even if You grow weary of us, Hari, we will not let You go. Where else are we to go? Tell me; I ask it at Your feet. I have staked my very life on this. Now You may gladly chase after me. Tuka says: this is my fixed resolve. I will not let go of this place.
What it means
Tukaram turns the usual posture inside out. Instead of begging God not to leave, he warns that even if God tires of him, he will not loosen his grip. He has no other refuge, so the question, where else could I go, is not rhetorical but real. Having bet his life on this hold, he tells God the pursuit may now run the other way. The whole stance is one stubborn vow: he has found his place at the feet and he refuses to be pried loose.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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