Tender devotion, the babbling child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आइका माझीं कवतुकउत्तरें । देउनी सादरें चित्त देवा॥1॥
वोरसें आवडी आलों पायापासीं । होय तें मनेसीं सुख कीजे ॥ध्रु.॥
तुमचें न भंगे सवाौत्तमपण । करितां समाधान लेंकराचें॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जरी बोलतों बोबडें । तरी वाडे कोडें कवतुक ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Hear my playful words, O God, and give them Your attentive chitta. I have come to Your feet out of love and affection. Whatever brings You joy, let that bring joy to my mind as well. Your supreme excellence is not diminished by satisfying the wish of a child. Says Tuka, even if I speak in a babbling way, the delight of this playful devotion only grows.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Hear my playful words, O God, and give them Your full attention. I have come close to Your feet, brimming with love. Whatever brings You joy, let that be the joy of my mind too. Your supreme greatness is not lessened by granting a child its wish. Tuka says: even if I speak in baby-talk, the delight of this play only grows.
What it means
Tukaram is approaching God not as a petitioner but as a doted-on child, and asking only to be listened to with full attention. He has come to the feet brimming with love, and surrenders his own preference: whatever pleases God, let that please him too. Then he answers an unspoken worry, that asking favors might somehow diminish God. A parent's greatness is not lessened by granting a child's wish, he says, so God loses nothing by indulging him. He even turns his own clumsiness into charm: if his words come out as baby-talk, that only makes the loving play between child and parent sweeter.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →