Devotion, the bold reminder to God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आमुचिया भावें तुज देवपण । तें कां विसरोन राहिलासी ॥1॥
समर्थासी नाहीं उपकारस्मरण । दिल्या आठवण वांचोनियां ॥ध्रु.॥
चळण वळण सेवकाच्या बळें । निर्गुणाच्यामुळें सांभाळावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां आलों खंडावरी । प्रेम देउनि हरी बुझवावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It is by our devotion that You received Your divinity; why then have You forgotten this? The powerful do not remember the favor done to them; they recall only what they themselves have given. All Your movement and activity depend on the devotee's strength; as the Formless, You should be especially watchful. Says Tuka, I have now come to the breaking point; console me, O Hari, by pouring out Your love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your godhood comes from our devotion. Why then have You sat there and forgotten it? The powerful do not remember a favor done to them; they remember only what they themselves have given. All Your moving and acting rests on the strength of Your servants. As the Formless, You should be all the more watchful over them. Tuka says: I have come now to the breaking point. Console me, Hari, by pouring out Your love.
What it means
Tukaram speaks to God with startling boldness, almost as a creditor. His claim is that the formless God takes on a knowable, worshipped divinity through the devotion of His servants, so the relationship is not one-sided. He charges that the powerful tend to forget favors received and recall only favors given, and asks God not to behave that way. If God's whole presence in the world rests on devotees, then God owes them special care. The poem ends not in accusation but in need: he has reached his limit and asks to be steadied by an outpouring of love.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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