Devotion, God will not let you stay separate
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वैभवाचे धनी सकळ शरणागत । सत्यभावें चित्त अपिनलें तें ॥1॥
नेदी उरों देव आपणांवेगळें । भावाचिया बळें ठायाठाव ॥ध्रु.॥
जाणोनि नेणती अंगा आली दशा । मग होय इच्छा आपणे चि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बरे धाकटएाचें जिणें । माता स्तनपानें वाढविते ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All who have surrendered to that Lord of glory have offered their chitta in true faith. God does not allow them to remain separate from Him. By the power of devotion, He goes to every place. Those who, though knowing, become as if unknowing, find that state arising by God's own will. Says Tuka, blessed is the life of the small and humble. A mother nourishes her child at the breast.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All who have surrendered to that Lord of glory have offered their heart in true faith. God does not let them stay apart from himself. By the strength of their devotion, he goes wherever they are. Those who, though they know, become as though they know nothing, find that this state comes about by God's own will. Tuka says: blessed is the life of the small and helpless. A mother feeds her child at the breast and makes it grow.
What it means
Tukaram describes what surrender draws from God. Those who hand over their heart in true faith are not left at a distance; God refuses to let them remain separate and, pulled by their devotion, comes to wherever they are. The devotees who let go of their own cleverness, knowing yet choosing to be as the unknowing, find that very helplessness granted to them by God's own will. The closing image makes the logic plain: it is good to be small, because a mother nurses and raises only the child too weak to feed itself, and so smallness before God is what draws his care.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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