Devotion, the unexpected arrival
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवचित या तुमच्या पायां । देवराया पावलों ॥1॥
बरवें जालें देशाउर । आल्या दुर सारिखें ॥ध्रु.॥
राहोनियां जातों ठाया । आलियाची निशानी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चरणसेवा । जोडी हेवा लाधली ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Unexpectedly, O King of gods, I have arrived at Your feet. It is well, for the long journey from a distant land has ended. Remaining here, I depart, leaving a mark of my visit. Says Tuka, the service of Your feet is the prize my longing has won.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All at once, King of gods, I have reached Your feet. It is good. The long road from a far country is over. I stay here, and I go, leaving the mark of my coming. Tuka says: the service of Your feet is the prize my longing has won.
What it means
Tukaram describes arriving at God suddenly, as if the long pilgrimage from a distant land had ended without his planning it. He treats this not as his achievement but as grace landing unexpectedly. Even as he must move on, the visit leaves a trace on him, he is not the same for having come. The line he settles on is that to serve at these feet is itself the reward, the thing his longing was always reaching for, now received.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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