Devotion, asking only for the meeting
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
स्वामीसी संकट पडे जे गोष्टीचें । काय त्या प्रेमाचें सुख मज ॥1॥
दुःखवीना चित्त तुझें नारायणा । कांहीं च मागेना तुजपासीं ॥ध्रु.॥
रििद्ध सििद्ध मोक्ष संपित्त विलास । सोडियेली आस याची जीवें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे एके वेळे देई भेटी । वोरसोनि पोटीं आलिंगावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why should I ask for anything that would trouble my Lord? What joy would such love bring me? I do not wish to sadden Your chitta, O Narayana, and so I ask nothing of You. Wealth, powers, liberation, comfort, I have given up the hope of all these. Says Tuka, grant me only one meeting. Embrace me to Your chitta and let me feel that closeness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why would I ask for anything that would put my Lord in difficulty? What joy could such love give me? I do not want to grieve your heart, Narayana, so I ask nothing of you. Riches, powers, liberation, comfort, pleasures: I have given up all hope of these from my heart. Tuka says: just give me one meeting. Hold me to your heart and let me feel that closeness.
What it means
Tukaram redefines what love is allowed to want. He refuses to ask for the standard prizes, wealth, occult powers, even liberation, partly because they are beside the point and partly out of a strange courtesy: he will not burden the one he loves with demands. The test he applies is whether a request would trouble God's heart, and he chooses to ask for nothing that would. What remains is not a thing to be granted but the relationship itself: a single meeting and an embrace. Love that truly loves, he implies, wants the beloved and not the beloved's gifts.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →