Devotion, asking only for Oneness
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय मागावें कवणासी । ज्यासी मागों तो मजपाशीं॥1॥
जरी मागों पद इंद्राचें । तरी शाश्वत नाहीं त्याचें॥ध्रु.॥
जरी मागों ध्रुवपद । तरी त्यासी येथील छंद ॥2॥
स्वर्गभोग मागों पूर्ण । पुण्य सरल्या मागुती येणें ॥3॥
आयुष्य मागों चिरंजीव । जीवा मरण नाहीं स्वभावें ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे एक मागें । एकपणे नाहीं भंग ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whom should I ask, and for what? The one I would beg from already dwells within me. If I ask for Indra's throne, even that is not everlasting. If I ask for Dhruva's seat, even he longed for this earthly joy. If I ask for full heavenly pleasures, once the merit is spent, one must return again. If I ask for immortal life, the jiva by its very nature never dies. Says Tuka, I ask for only one thing: that Oneness which can never be broken.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What should I ask for, and from whom? The one I would beg from already lives within me. If I ask for Indra's throne, it does not last. If I ask for Dhruva's seat, even he still longed for this world. If I ask for the full pleasures of heaven, when the merit runs out I must come back again. If I ask for a long deathless life, the jiva by its own nature never dies. Tuka says: I ask for one thing only, that Oneness which can never be broken.
What it means
Tukaram works through every prize a soul might beg for and refuses each as not worth the asking. There is no one outside to petition, since the Lord he would ask from already dwells within him. One by one he sets aside the great rewards: Indra's throne passes away, Dhruva's high seat was won by one still bound to earthly desire, heaven's pleasures end the moment the stored merit is spent and send you back, and unending life is no gift since the self never truly dies anyway. Having cleared away all of these, he asks for the only thing none of them can give: undivided union with God, the Oneness that nothing can break.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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