Devotion, Pandhari as heaven
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धन्यधन्य ज्यास पंढरीसी वास । धन्य ते जन्मास प्राणी आले ॥1॥
बहु खाणीमध्यें होत कोणी एक । त्रिगुण कीटक पिक्षराज ॥ध्रु.॥
उत्तम चांडाळ नर नारी बाळ । अवघे चि सकळ चतुर्भुज ॥2॥
अवघा विठ्ठल तेथें दुजा नाहीं । भरला अंतर्बाहि सदोदीत ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें होउनी राहेन । सांडोवा पाषाण पंढरीचा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Blessed, blessed are those who dwell in Pandhari. Blessed are the beings born there. Among all the countless species, rarely does one emerge supreme. Whether high-born or low, man or woman, young or old, all there are four-armed like Vishnu. Vitthal alone fills everything. There is no other. He pervades inside and outside for all time. Says Tuka, I will remain here as a paving stone of Pandhari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Blessed, blessed are those who dwell in Pandhari. Blessed are the beings born there. Among countless kinds of creatures, rarely does one rise. But here, high-born or low, man or woman, child, all alike are four-armed like Vishnu. Vitthal alone fills everything; there is no other. He fills inside and outside, always. Tuka says: let me stay here, even as a paving stone of Pandhari.
What it means
Tukaram praises Pandhari as the place where the ordinary order of things is overturned. In the wide world a soul rises to the highest birth only rarely, but in this town the distinctions that divide people, high and low, man and woman, young and old, fall away, and all wear Vishnu's form. The reason is that Vitthal alone pervades the place, within and without, with no second thing beside him. So Tukaram does not even ask to be a great soul there; he would be content to be a stone underfoot, as long as it is in Pandhari.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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