Devotion, claiming the meal by right
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं भ्यालों तरी पावलों या ठाया । तुह्मां आळवाया जविळकें ॥1॥
सत्ताबळें आतां मागेन भोजन । केलें तें चिंतन आजिवरी ॥ध्रु.॥
नवनीतासाटीं खादला हा जीव । थोडएासाटीं कीव कोण करी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ताक न लगे हें घाटे । पांडुरंगा खोटें चाळवण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It is not out of fear that I have come to this place, but out of the closeness of calling upon You. Now by right I will demand my meal, for I have done my devotion until this day. You swallowed blows for the sake of butter; who shows mercy for small matters? Says Tuka, I do not need even buttermilk at a loss, O Panduranga; do not put me off with evasions.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
It is not out of fear that I have reached this place, but to be near enough to call on You. Now, by right, I will ask for my meal, for I have done my remembering up to this day. This life was eaten up for the sake of butter; who shows mercy over so small a thing? Tuka says: I do not want buttermilk handed to me short of measure. O Panduranga, that is a false dodge.
What it means
Tukaram comes before God not as a frightened petitioner but as one who has earned the right to be close, having done his devotion faithfully until now. So he claims his reward plainly, as a meal owed to him rather than a favor begged. Drawing on Krishna's love of butter, he insists he will not be fobbed off with a lesser portion or a stingy substitute. The closing line refuses any divine evasion: he asks Panduranga for the full thing, not a watered-down buttermilk given short.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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