Devotion, fed by God's hand
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पोट धालें मग न लगे परती । जालिया नििंश्चती खेळ गोड ॥1॥
आपुलिया हातें देई वो कवळ । विठ्ठल शीतळ जीवन वरी ॥ध्रु.॥
घराचा विसर होईल आनंद । नाचेन मी छंदें प्रेमाचिया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तों च वरी करकर । मग हें उत्तर खंडईल ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Once the belly is full, there is no need to turn back; the game becomes sweet when certainty is reached. O Mother, feed me morsels with Your own hand, and pour the cooling waters of Vitthal upon me. In the bliss of forgetting home, I will dance in the rapture of love. Says Tuka, until then there will be clamor, but after that, all argument shall cease.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Once the belly is full there is no turning back. When certainty comes, the game turns sweet. Feed me morsels with your own hand, O mother. Pour the cool waters of Vitthal over me. I will forget my home in the joy. I will dance in the rapture of love. Tuka says: until then there is clamor; after that, all argument ends.
What it means
Tukaram asks to be fed by God directly, hand to mouth, and poured over with the cooling waters of Vitthal's presence. Once that fullness comes, he says, there is no going back to lack; the whole game of life turns sweet, and certainty replaces the old restlessness. In that bliss he will forget house and home and dance in love. The clamor and arguing, he says, last only until the soul is filled; after the fullness, the noise stops by itself.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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