Adoration, God waiting on the riverbank
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बाप माझा दिनानाथ । वाट भक्तांची पाहात ॥1॥
कर ठेवुनियां करीं । उभा चंद्रभागे तिरीं ॥ध्रु.॥
गळां वैजयंतीमाळा। रूपें डोळस सांवळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भेटावया । सदा उभारिल्या बाहएा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My father, the Lord of the humble, stands watching for His devotees to come. He stands with hands on His hips on the bank of the Chandrabhaga. Around His neck hangs the Vaijayanti garland, and His form is radiant and dark-complexioned. Says Tuka, His arms are always raised, ready to embrace.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My father, Lord of the lowly, stands watching for his devotees to come. He stands with his hands on his hips, there on the bank of the Chandrabhaga. A Vaijayanti garland hangs at his neck. His form is dark and beautiful, with seeing eyes. Tuka says: to embrace us, his arms are always open.
What it means
Tukaram paints Vitthal not as a remote deity but as a father who waits and watches for his children. The whole posture of the temple image is read as longing: hands on hips on the Chandrabhaga's bank, eyes that truly see, arms held ready. The dark, garlanded form is gazing back at the devotee even as the devotee gazes at him. The point lands in the last line: the seeking is mutual, and God's arms are not crossed but perpetually open to embrace whoever comes.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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