Devotion, the Name brings the Mother running
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
उच्चारूं यासाटीं । आह्मी नाम तुझें कंठीं ॥1॥
येसी धांवत धांवत । माउलिये कृपावंते ॥ध्रु.॥
पाय चित्तीं धरूं । क्रिडा भलते ठायीं करूं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझे गंगे । प्रेमभरित पांडुरंगे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It is for this reason that I utter Your name on my lips: so that You come running, O gracious Mother. I hold Your feet in my chitta and play freely wherever I may be. Says Tuka, O my Ganga, O Panduranga, You are full of love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
It is for this that I keep your name in my throat: so that you come running, O merciful Mother. I hold your feet in my heart, and I play freely wherever I am. Tuka says: O my Ganga, O Panduranga, you are full of love.
What it means
Tukaram tells why he repeats the Name: it is the cry that makes God rush to him like a mother to a child. With the feet held in his heart, he feels free to play anywhere, since the Lord is always near. He addresses Panduranga as both Mother and Ganga, the holy river, names of tenderness and purifying love. The poem shows the Name not as a duty but as the small word that calls a love already overflowing toward him.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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