Absorption, the mind dissolved like salt
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुज पाहातां समोरी । दृिष्ट न फिरे माघारी ॥1॥
माझें चित्त तुझ्या पायां । मिठी पडिली पंढरिराया ॥ध्रु.॥
नव्हे सारितां निराळें । लवण मेळवितां जळें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बळी । जीव दिला पायांतळीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When I look at You standing before me, my gaze will not turn away. My mind has clung to Your feet in a tight embrace, O Lord of Pandhari. It cannot be separated, just as salt, once dissolved in water, cannot be drawn apart. Says Tuka, with all his strength, he has offered his life beneath Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When I look at you before me, my gaze will not turn back. My mind has caught hold of your feet, Pandhariraya, and clings tight. It cannot be pulled away, as salt cannot be drawn back once it dissolves in water. Tuka says: with all his strength, he has given his life beneath your feet.
What it means
Tukaram describes a seeing that has become irreversible: once his eyes meet Vitthal, they refuse to turn away, and his mind grips the feet and will not let go. The image of salt in water names the kind of union he means, not a clinging that could be loosened but a dissolving that cannot be undone. Subject and object no longer come apart. The final line completes it as total self-offering, his whole life laid beneath those feet with everything he has.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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