Devotion, only Hari is my trade
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
येउनि संसारीं । मी तों एक जाणें हरी ॥1॥
नेणें आणिक कांहीं धंदा । नित्य ध्यातसें गोविंदा ॥ध्रु.॥
कामक्रोधलोभस्वार्थ। अवघा माझा पंढरिनाथ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एक । धणी विठ्ठल मी सेवक ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Having come into this world, I know only one thing: Hari. I know no other occupation; I ceaselessly meditate upon Govinda. Desire, anger, greed, and self-interest: all of these are, for me, none other than the Lord of Pandhari. Says Tuka, Vitthal is the master and I am the servant, and that is the whole of it.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Having come into this world, I know only one thing: Hari. I know no other trade. I meditate on Govinda without stopping. Desire, anger, greed, self-interest: for me these are all none other than the Lord of Pandhari. Tuka says: there is one thing only. Vitthal is the master, and I am the servant.
What it means
Tukaram describes a life reduced to a single skill. He has no occupation but to remember Hari and to dwell on Govinda without pause. Then he says the boldest thing: even desire, anger, greed, and self-interest, the usual inner enemies, have become for him nothing but the Lord of Pandhari. The forces that drag others down he now turns entirely toward God, so they no longer pull him away. All of it collapses into one relation: Vitthal is the master, he is the servant, and that is the whole account.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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