Devotion at the feet, not the face
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न लगावी दिठी । माझी तुझे मुखवटी ॥1॥
आधीं पाउलें पाउलें । ते मी पाहेन तें भलें ॥ध्रु.॥
देईन हे काया । वरि सांडणें सांडाया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । बहु आवडसी जीवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do not cast my gaze upon Your face, Lord. Let me first behold Your feet, step by step; that alone will satisfy me. I will lay down this body, ready to be discarded. Says Tuka, O God, my jiva loves You dearly.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do not turn my gaze to Your face, Lord. First let me look at Your feet, step by step; that alone will satisfy me. I will lay down this body, ready to be thrown away. Tuka says: O God, my jiva loves You dearly.
What it means
Tukaram asks to be kept at the feet rather than lifted to the face. The face is the higher, intimate vision, and he sets it aside, content to gaze at the feet step by step, because that lowliness is itself his devotion. He offers the body freely, treating it as something to be discarded once it has served. The closing line names the bare truth underneath the request: the soul simply loves God, and that love asks for nearness at the feet, not for elevation.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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