Devotion, no wish for liberation
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नमोनमो तुज माझें हें कारण । काय जालें उणें करितां स्नान ॥1॥
संतांचा मारग चालतों झाडूनि । हो का लाभ हानि कांहींतरि ॥ध्रु.॥
न करिसी तरि हेंचि कोडें मज । भक्ति गोड काज आणीक नाहीं ॥2॥
करीं सेवा कथा नाचेन रंगणीं । प्रेमसुखधणी पुरेल तों ॥3॥
महाद्वारीं सुख वैष्णवांचे मेळीं । वैकुंठ जवळी वसे तेथें ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं मुक्तिसवें चाड । हें चि जन्म गोड घेतां मज ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Salutations to You, for this is my cause. What is lost by taking a holy bath? I walk the path cleared by the saints, whatever the gain or loss may be. If You do not answer, then this itself is my delight: devotion is my only sweet occupation. I will serve, I will attend the sacred stories, and I will dance in the arena of kirtan until the hunger for the bliss of love is satisfied. At the great gate, joy abounds in the company of Vaishnavas. Vaikuntha dwells right there. Says Tuka, I have no desire for liberation. This very birth is sweet to me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Salutations to You again and again; this is my whole aim. What is lost by taking a holy bath? I walk the path the saints have cleared, whatever the gain or loss. If You do not answer me, even this is my delight: devotion is my one sweet work, and no other. I will serve, I will attend the sacred stories, I will dance in the ground of kirtan until the hunger for the bliss of love is filled. At the great gate, in the company of Vaishnavas, there is joy; Vaikuntha dwells right there. Tuka says: I have no desire for liberation. This very birth is sweet to me.
What it means
Tukaram declares that the path of the saints is enough for him whether or not it brings any reward. He goes further: even if God never answers, devotion itself is his delight, so the loving practice is not a means to something else but the thing he wants. He locates heaven in the doing, in kirtan and service and the company of devotees at the temple gate, saying Vaikuntha is already there. The radical close is his refusal of liberation itself; he would rather keep this human birth, because the birth that lets him love and sing God is sweeter to him than release.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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