Devotion, only this is my gain
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हा गे हा चि आतां लाहो । माझा अहो विठ्ठला॥1॥
दंडवत दंडवत । वेगळी मात न बोलें ॥ध्रु.॥
वेगळाल्या कोठें भागें। लाग लागें लावावा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे केल्या जमा । वृित्ततमा भाजूनि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
This, this alone is now my gain, O my Vitthal. I offer prostrations, prostrations. I speak no other word. Where else shall I turn for my share? The connection must be forged. Says Tuka, having burned away the restlessness of the mind, the accounts are settled.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This, this alone is now my gain, O my Vitthal. I bow down, I bow down. I speak no other word. Where else would I go for my share? The bond must be tied fast. Tuka says: the account is settled, the darkness of the restless mind burned away.
What it means
Tukaram fixes on one thing and refuses to look elsewhere. He calls Vitthal his only gain, and reduces all his speech to prostration: he will say nothing else, ask for nothing else. There is no other door where he could collect what is his, so he insists the bond with God be made firm. The closing image is of a reckoning closed out: the restless, clouded mind has been burned off like dross, and the account stands settled. The poem stakes everything on this single attachment and lets the rest fall away.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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