Devotion, service over liberation
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आत्मिस्थति मज नको हा विचार । देई निरंतर चरणसेवा ॥1॥
जन्मोजन्मीं तुझा दास पुरुषोत्तमा । हे चि गोडी माझ्या देई जीवा ॥ध्रु.॥
काय सायुज्यता मुक्ति हे चि गोड । देव भक्त कोड तेथें नाहीं ॥2॥
काय तें निर्गुण पाहों कैशा परी । वणूप तुझी हरी कीर्ती कैसी ॥3॥
गोड चरणसेवा देवभक्तपण । मज देवा झणें दुराविसी ॥4॥
जाणिवेपासूनि सोडवीं माझ्या जीवा । देई चरणसेवा निरंतर ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे गोडा गोड न लगे प्रीतिकर । प्रीति ते ही सार सेवा हे रे ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I do not want the state of self-realization; give me instead perpetual service at Your feet. Birth after birth, let me be Your servant, O Purushottama; grant my jiva this very sweetness. What joy is there in the liberation of merging, where neither God nor devotee remains? How shall I behold the formless, and how shall I describe Your glory, O Hari? Sweet is the service of Your feet and the bond between God and devotee; do not, O Lord, deprive me of this. Free my jiva from the burden of knowledge and grant me ceaseless service at Your feet. Says Tuka, what is sweeter than sweetness itself? That sweetness is the essence of devoted service.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I do not want the state of knowing the Self; that is not for me. Give me instead unbroken service at your feet. Birth after birth let me be your servant, O Purushottama; grant my soul this one sweetness. What is the joy in merging, in liberation, where neither God nor devotee is left? How would I gaze on the formless, and how could I sing your glory then, O Hari? Sweet is the service of your feet, sweet the bond of God and devotee; do not, O Lord, take it from me. Free my soul from the weight of mere knowing, and give me ceaseless service at your feet. Tuka says: nothing is sweeter than sweetness itself, and that sweetness is the heart of devoted service.
What it means
Tukaram refuses the highest prize that scripture offers, liberation as merging into the formless, and asks for something the philosophers rank lower: endless servanthood at God's feet, life after life. His reason is plain. In sayujya, where the soul dissolves into God, both God and devotee disappear, and with them go the very things he loves: the face to behold, the glory to sing, the relationship of lover and Beloved. He even calls knowledge a burden to be freed from, because it would cost him the two-ness that makes love possible. The claim he lands is bold: service is not the lower path but the sweetest essence, and he would rather keep loving God than become God.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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