Devotion, eat with me, hold nothing back
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आवडी कां ठेवूं । बैसोनियां संगें जेवूं ॥1॥
मागें नको ठेवूं उरी । माझी आण तुजवरी ॥ध्रु.॥
देखिले प्रकार । त्याचे पाहेन साचार ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बाळीं । केली चाहाडी सकळीं॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why hold back Your affection? Come, let us sit and eat together. Do not keep anything in reserve; I hold You to Your word. I have seen how things are, and I will verify them for myself. Says Tuka, the children have told me everything; all the secrets are out.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why hold back Your love? Come, sit and eat with me. Keep nothing in reserve; I hold You to Your word. I have seen how things are, and I will check it for myself. Tuka says: the children have told me everything; all of it is out.
What it means
Tukaram presses for full intimacy, not measured affection. He asks God to stop holding love back and instead sit and share a meal with him, and he insists that nothing be kept in reserve, binding God to a promise already made. With a playful confidence he says he has already seen how matters stand and means to verify it himself. The closing turn is lighthearted: the children have let out the whole secret, so the hidden truth of God's love is already exposed and there is no use pretending otherwise.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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