Invocation, inner worship of Vithabai
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चौक भरियेला आसनीं पाचारिली कुळस्वामिनी । वैकुंठवासिनि ये धांवोनी झडकरी ॥१॥
रंगा येई वो विठाई सांवळिये डोळसे । तुझें श्रीमुख साजिरें तें मी केधवां देखेन ॥ध्रु.॥
रजतमधुपारती । पंचप्राणांची आरती । अवघी सारोनी आइती । ये धांवती झडकरी ॥२॥
मन मारोनियां मेंढा । आशा मनसा तृष्णा सुटी । भक्तिभाव नैवेद्य ताटीं । भरोनि केला हाकारा ॥३॥
डांका अनुहात गजरे । येउनि अंगासी संचरे । आपुला घेउनी पुरस्कार । आरोग्य करीं तुकयासी ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The sacred square is drawn and the family goddess is invoked. Come quickly, O Vithabai, dweller of Vaikuntha. I have offered the lamp of the five vital breaths; the mind is slaughtered like a ram, and desire and craving are released. The feast of devotion is prepared in the offering plate. Says Tuka, come and enter my body with the drumbeat of the unstruck sound; accept this offering and grant me well-being.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The sacred square is drawn, and on the seat the family goddess is called. Dweller of Vaikuntha, come running, come quickly. Come into the dance, Vithabai, dark one with seeing eyes. When will I see your lovely face? The lamp is the rajas and tamas, the wave of the lamp is the five vital breaths; all the offering is made ready, so come running quickly. The mind is killed like a ram; hope, longing, and craving are set loose. The plate of offering is filled with the feeling of devotion, and I have called out. With the drumbeat of the unstruck sound, come and enter my body. Take your own offering, and make Tuka well.
What it means
Tukaram describes worship turned wholly inward. The ritual square, the lamp, the offering plate are all reread as inner acts: the dark and dull tendencies become the lamp, the five breaths become its waving, the very mind is sacrificed like a ram and its hopes and cravings released. The deity invoked is Vithoba, addressed tenderly as Vithabai, the family goddess of the heart, summoned to enter his own body with the unstruck inner sound. The longing under it is plain: he aches to see that dark, seeing face. He asks the Lord to accept this offering made of himself and to make him whole.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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