Devotion, the only marketplace worth attending
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आषाढी निकट । आणी कातिनकीचा हाट ॥1॥
पुरे दोन्ही च बाजार । न लगे आणीक व्यापार ॥ध्रु.॥
तें चि घ्यावें तें चि घ्यावें । कैवल्याच्या रासी भावें ॥2॥
कांहीं कोणा नेणे । विठो वांचूनि तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The Ashadhi pilgrimage is near, and then comes the fair of Kartiki. These two gatherings alone are enough. No other trade is needed. Take, take again and again the heaps of liberation at a bargain. Says Tuka, I know nothing and no one besides Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The Ashadhi pilgrimage is near, and the fair of Kartiki comes after. These two markets are enough. No other trade is needed. Take it, take it, the heaps of liberation, with love and for almost nothing. Tuka says: I know nothing and no one except Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram turns the great Pandharpur pilgrimages of Ashadh and Kartik into a marketplace where the only goods are the company of God. He says these two fairs are the whole of his commerce; he needs no other dealing in the world. What is sold there is liberation itself, piled in heaps and had cheaply, the price being only love. The closing line is total surrender: outside of Vitthal he knows nothing and no one. The point is that devotion is the one trade that pays in the thing every other trade cannot give.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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