Devotion, glory beyond writing
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझी कीर्ती सांगों तुजपुढें जरी । ब्रह्मांडीं ही हरी माईना ते ॥1॥
मेरूची लेखणी सागराची शाई । कागद हा मही न पुरे चि ॥ध्रु.॥
अनंत अपार आपंगिले भक्त । माझें चि संचित ओडवेना ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुह्मां बोल नाहीं देवा । पामरें म्यां सेवा केली नाहीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If I were to recount Your glory before You, O Hari, even the universe could not contain it. If Mount Meru were the pen, the ocean the ink, and the earth the paper, still it would not suffice. Countless devotees have You embraced; only my own accumulated merit falls short. Says Tuka, there is no fault in You, O God. It is this pitiable one who has failed to serve You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If I tried to recount Your glory to Your face, O Hari, the whole universe could not hold it. If Mount Meru were the pen, the ocean the ink, and the earth the paper, even that would not be enough. You have taken in countless, boundless devotees; only my own store of merit falls short. Tuka says: there is no fault in You, O God. It is this poor wretch who has not served You.
What it means
Tukaram reaches for the largest measures he can name, the universe, Meru as a pen, the ocean as ink, and finds them all too small to write God's glory. Against that boundlessness he sets a single shortfall, and he is careful to locate it correctly. God has gathered in countless devotees without limit; if Tukaram has not been gathered, the lack is not in God's reach but in his own thin store of merit. So he refuses to blame heaven for any distance he feels. The fault, he insists, is entirely his own failure to serve, a deliberate humility that keeps the door open rather than shutting it in resentment.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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