Refuge, strength from God's feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मां हें सकळ । तुझ्या पायांचें चि बळ ॥1॥
करूं अमृताचें पान । दुजें नेणों कांहीं आन ॥ध्रु.॥
जयाचा जो भोग। सुख दुःख पीडा रोग ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । तुझे पायीं माझा ठेवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All our strength comes from the power of Your feet. We drink the nectar of that alone and know no other thing. Whatever joy or sorrow, affliction or illness comes, is each one's own portion to bear. Says Tuka, O God, my treasure lies at Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
All that we have is the strength of Your feet alone. We drink the nectar of that one thing and know nothing else. Whatever comes, joy or sorrow, affliction or illness, is each one's own portion to bear. Tuka says: O God, my treasure is laid up at Your feet.
What it means
Tukaram traces every bit of his strength back to a single source, the feet of God, and says he drinks that one nectar and wants nothing besides. He then sets the troubles of life in their place: joy and sorrow, pain and sickness are each person's own allotment, to be borne rather than fought. The frame is acceptance grounded in refuge; because his real treasure is kept safe at God's feet, the shifting fortunes of the body do not touch what matters. He is not denying that pain comes, only refusing to let it be the center.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →