Devotion, the babbling child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझें मुख नामीं रंगो सर्वकाळ । गोविंद गोपाळ राम कृष्ण ॥1॥
अबद्ध चांगलें गाऊं भलतैसें । कळलें हें जैसें मायबापा॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज न लगे वांकडें । मी तुझें बोबडें बाळ तान्हें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
May my mouth be colored with Your name at all times, Govinda, Gopala, Rama, Krishna. Whether I sing well or poorly, let me sing in whatever way I know, O mother and father. Says Tuka, do not hold my faults against me. I am Your babbling infant child.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let my mouth be colored with your name at all times: Govinda, Gopala, Rama, Krishna. Whether the singing comes out clumsy or fine, let me sing it however I can, mother and father. Tuka says: do not hold my faults against me. I am your babbling infant, your small child.
What it means
Tukaram asks for nothing but that the Name stay always on his lips, and he names the forms he loves. He sets aside the worry about whether his singing is good enough by reframing the whole relationship: God is mother and father, and he is a small child still learning to speak. A parent does not score an infant's babble for correctness. So the plea is that devotion be received for its love and not judged by its polish, and that his clumsiness be taken as a child's, not a sinner's.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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