Devotion, the pilgrim's one prayer
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जन्मोजन्मीं दास । व्हावें हे चि माझी आस ॥1॥
पंढरीचा वारकरी । वारी चुकों नेदीं हरी ॥ध्रु.॥
संतसमागम । अंगीं थिरावलें प्रेम ॥2॥
स्नान चंद्रभागे । तुका ह्मणे हें चि मागें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My sole desire is to be a servant of God, birth after birth. Let me be a pilgrim of Pandhari, and may Hari never let me miss the annual pilgrimage. In the company of saints, may love become firmly rooted in my being. Says Tuka, bathing in the Chandrabhaga is all I ask.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
To be Your servant, birth after birth, this alone is my desire. Let me be a pilgrim of Pandhari; Hari, never let me miss the pilgrimage. The company of saints, and love grown firm and steady in me. A bath in the Chandrabhaga. Tuka says: this is all I ask.
What it means
Tukaram lays out the whole of what he wants, and it is strikingly small. He asks not for release or reward but only to keep serving God through every life, and to keep walking the pilgrimage to Pandhari without ever falling out of step. With that he asks for the things that make the path stay alive: the company of saints, love that has put down roots and steadied, and the bath in the river at Pandharpur. The prayer is a refusal of grander ambitions; the devotee's heaven is simply never losing the road to his Lord.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →