Devotion, clinging through merit and fault
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
असाल ते तुह्मी असा । आह्मी सहसा निवडों ना॥1॥
अनुसरलों एका चित्तें । हातोंहातें गींवसित ॥ध्रु.॥
गुणदोष काशासाटीं । तुमचे पोटीं वागवूं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दुजें आतां । कोठें चित्ता आतळों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Be as You are, I shall not part from You. I have followed You with a single mind, grasping You hand over hand. Why should I carry the weight of Your merits and faults in my chitta? Says Tuka, where else could my mind now touch or attach itself?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Be whatever you are; I will not part from you. I have followed you with a single mind, holding you hand over hand. Why should I carry the weight of your merits and faults in my heart? Tuka says: where else could my mind now turn or attach itself?
What it means
Tukaram declares a love that no longer judges its object. Whatever God may be, he refuses to let go, having followed with an undivided mind, climbing toward God hand over hand. He sets aside the whole question of weighing God's virtues against any faults; that accounting is not his to carry. The closing line shows why this is not naive but settled: there is nowhere else his mind can go, no other refuge left to attach itself to. Devotion here means staying fast precisely because all alternatives have fallen away.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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