Devotion over non-dual merger
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अद्वैतीं तों माझें नाहीं समाधान । गोड हे चरण सेवा तुझी ॥1॥
करूनी उचित देई हें चि दान । आवडे कीर्तन नाम तुझें॥ध्रु.॥
देवभक्तपण सुखाचा सोहळा । ठेवुनी निराळा दावी मज ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आहे तुझें हें सकळ । कोणी एके काळें देई मज ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I find no satisfaction in Advaita alone. Sweet to me is the service of Your feet. Grant me this as my rightful gift: let me love Your kirtan and Your name. The celebration of the bond between God and devotee is the true joy. Keep it distinct and show it to me. Says Tuka, all of this is Yours. Grant it to me at some time.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In Advaita alone I find no peace. Sweet to me are these feet, and the service of You. Do this fitting thing: give me only this gift, that I love Your kirtan and Your name. The joy of being God and devotee, the sweet festival of the two, set it apart and show it to me. Tuka says: all of this is already Yours. Give it to me at some time.
What it means
Tukaram is refusing the highest prize of the non-dual path because it would dissolve the very thing he wants. Advaita, the merging where worshipper and worshipped become one, leaves him no satisfaction; what is sweet to him is to stay at the feet and keep serving. So he names the one gift he is asking for: love for the Name and the kirtan, and the festival that can only happen while God and devotee remain two. He even asks God to keep that distinctness deliberately, to set it apart and show it to him. The closing line is quietly bold: since all of it is God's to give anyway, let him be given the lasting two-ness rather than the merger.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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