Devotion, storming Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वेढा वेढा रे पंढरी । मोर्चे लावा भीमातिरीं ॥1॥
चलाचला संत जन । करा देवासी भांडण ॥ध्रु.॥
लुटालुटा पंढरपूर। धरा रखुमाईचा वर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चला । घाव निशानी घातला॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Lay siege to Pandhari! Set up your camps along the banks of the Bhima! Come, come, O saintly ones, let us pick a fight with God. Plunder Pandharpur and seize the husband of Rakhumai. Says Tuka, come along, the banner has been raised and the battle cry sounded.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Lay siege, lay siege to Pandhari. Set up your camps along the bank of the Bhima. Come on, come on, you saints. Pick a fight with God. Plunder, plunder Pandharpur. Seize the husband of Rakhumai. Tuka says: come along. The banner is raised, the war cry is struck.
What it means
Tukaram turns the language of war into the language of love. He calls the saints to march on Pandharpur, to lay siege to the temple town on the Bhima river, to plunder it and capture Vitthal, the husband of Rakhumai. The violence is a holy joke: the only thing being stormed is God's own resistance, and the only plunder is God himself. By making devotion an army with banners and a battle cry, he says the devotees mean to take the Lord by force of longing, refusing to leave Pandhari without him.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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