Surrender, only the place of a servant
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संकोचतो जीव महत्त्वाच्या भारें । दासत्व चि बरें बहु वाटे ॥1॥
कळावी जी माझी आवडी हे संतां । देणें तरि आतां हें चि द्यावें ॥ध्रु.॥
तुमचे चरण पावविलों सेवा । ह्मणउनि हेवा हा चि करीं ॥2॥
विनउनी तुका वंदितो चरण । लेखा रजरेण चरणींचें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The jiva shrinks under the weight of greatness; servitude feels far better. May the saints know my longing. If anything is to be given me, let it be this: the privilege of serving at your feet. Therefore this alone is my aspiration. Says Tuka, humbly I bow at your feet. Count me as the dust beneath your steps.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The jiva shrinks under the weight of greatness. To be a servant feels far better. Let the saints know this longing of mine. If anything is to be given to me now, give only this. You brought me to the service of your feet. So this alone is what I covet. Tuka says: humbly I bow at your feet. Count me as the dust of the dust at your feet.
What it means
Tukaram is refusing greatness and asking for the lowest place instead. He says the soul cannot bear the burden of being made great; what feels right, what it can carry, is the place of a servant. So when he asks the saints to grant his one desire, the desire is not power or honor but the privilege of serving at the feet he has already been brought to. He ends by asking to be counted as the dust beneath the dust of those feet, which is the whole prayer: let me be small enough to belong here.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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