Devotion, holding the feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भाव धरिला चरणीं ह्मणवितों दास । अहिनिनशीं ध्यास करीतसें ॥1॥
करीतसें ध्यास हृदयीं सकळ । भाव तो सबळ धरियेला ॥2॥
धरिले निश्चळ न सोडीं ते पाय । तुका ह्मणे सोय करीं माझी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have placed my devotion at Your feet and call myself Your servant. Day and night I hold You in my thoughts. I meditate upon You in my heart with all my being, for I have taken hold of this faith with great strength. I have grasped Your feet firmly and will not let go. Says Tuka, show me the way forward.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have set my love at Your feet and I call myself Your servant. Day and night I keep You in my thoughts. I keep You in my thoughts, in my whole heart. I have taken hold of this faith with all my strength. I have grasped those feet and will not let go. Tuka says: now make a way for me.
What it means
Tukaram describes a devotion that is both total and stubborn. He has fixed his love on God's feet, taken the name of servant, and keeps God in mind around the clock. The act repeated through the poem is gripping the feet and refusing to release them. Having held on this firmly, he turns to God with one plea: make the way forward for me. The devotion is his to give, but the path is God's to open.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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