Devotion, the mother and child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बाळेंविण माय क्षणभरि न राहे । न देखतां होये कासाविस ॥1॥
आणिक उदंड बुझाविती जरी । छंद त्या अंतरीं माउलीचा ॥ध्रु.॥
नावडती तया बोल आणिकाचे । देखोनियां नाचे माय दृष्टी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझी विठ्ठल माउली । आणिकांचे बोलीं चाड नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mother cannot remain even a moment without her child. When she cannot see it, she becomes distressed. Even if many others try to console her, her chitta longs only for her little one. She takes no pleasure in the words of others but dances with joy at the sight of her child. Says Tuka, Vitthal is my mother, and I care nothing for the words of anyone else.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mother cannot stay still even a moment without her child. When she cannot see it she grows frantic. However many others try to comfort her, her heart is set only on her little one. Their words do not please her; she dances with joy the moment her child comes into sight. Tuka says: Vitthal is my mother, and I have no use for anyone else's words.
What it means
Tukaram measures his longing for God by the plainest love he knows, a mother's need for her child. Such a mother cannot be quieted by any number of well-meaning voices; nothing eases her but the sight of the one she loves. He then flips the image so that Vitthal becomes the mother and he the child, but keeps the same exclusive devotion: no other counsel, no other comfort, will do. The poem says single-hearted love is not narrowness but the natural shape of real attachment, and he refuses every substitute for the one face he wants.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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