Surrender, seized and carried off
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एकाचिये वेठी । सांपडलों फुकासाटीं ॥1॥
घेतों काम सत्ताबळें । माझें करूनि भेंडोळें ॥ध्रु.॥
धांवे मागें मागें । जाय तिकडे चि लागे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नेलें । माझें सर्वस्वें विठ्ठलें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I was caught in one Being's grip, seized for free. He takes work from me by the force of His authority, wrapping me entirely around Himself. I run after Him wherever He goes, following relentlessly. Says Tuka, Vitthal has taken away my everything.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I was caught in one Being's grip, taken for nothing. He puts me to work by the force of his power, wrapping me up around himself. I run after him, behind him, wherever he goes I am stuck to him. Tuka says: Vitthal has carried off all that was mine.
What it means
Tukaram describes being seized by God rather than choosing him. He was caught in God's grip for free, and now God uses him by sheer authority, bundling him up and binding him close. He has no will of his own left; he simply runs after God wherever God goes, fastened to him. The signature line names the loss as a gain: Vitthal has taken away his everything, his whole separate self. To be wholly owned by God is, for Tukaram, exactly the point.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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