Devotion, calmed at the mother's breast
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मां भाविकांची जाती । एकविध जी श्रीपती । अळंकारयुक्ति । सरों शके चि ना ॥1॥
जाणें माउली त्या खुणा। क्षोभ उपजों नेदी मना । शांतवूनि स्तना ॥लावीं अवो कृपाळे॥ध्रु.॥
तुज अवघे होऊं येते । मज वाटों नये चित्ते । उपासने परतें। नये कांहीं आवडों ॥2॥
करूं रूपाची कल्पना । मुखीं नाम उच्चारणा। तुका ह्मणे जना । जल स्थल देखतां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We devotees are of a single nature, O Lord; eloquent speech and fine argument cannot serve us. You know our signals, O Mother; do not let agitation disturb the mind. Calm us and put us to Your breast, O compassionate one. You can become anything, but I should not be made to feel otherwise; nothing should appeal to me besides worship. Let me imagine Your form and speak Your Name with my lips. Says Tuka, wherever I look, on land or water, I see only You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We who have faith are of one single kind, O Lord. Fine speech and clever argument cannot serve us. You know our signs, O Mother. Do not let agitation rise up in our minds. Calm us, and hold us to Your breast, O merciful one. You can become anything at all, but do not let my heart feel otherwise; nothing should appeal to me except worship. Let me picture Your form and say Your Name with my lips. Tuka says: wherever the people look, on water or on land, I see only You.
What it means
Tukaram speaks for all simple devotees, people of a single, straightforward nature whom eloquence and argument cannot help. He turns to God as Mother, the one who reads the wordless signs of her child and is asked to soothe its agitation and draw it to her breast. The one request he makes for himself is constancy: God may take any form, but the devotee's heart must not be made to want anything besides worship. The poem ends in that fulfilled state, where imagining the form and speaking the Name has opened into seeing God everywhere, on land and water alike.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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