Devotion, the one thing known
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रेम जडलें तुझे पायीं । आणीक न सुचे मजला कांहीं ॥1॥
रात्रीदिवस तुझें ध्यान । तें चि माझें अनुष्ठान ॥ध्रु.॥
नामापरतें नेणें दुजें । ऐसें कळलें मजला निज ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अंतकाळीं । आह्मां सोडवीं तात्काळीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My love is fastened at Your feet; nothing else comes to my mind. Day and night I meditate on You; that alone is my spiritual practice. I know no other thing besides the Name; this I have come to know as my deepest truth. Says Tuka, at the hour of death, deliver me without delay.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My love has fastened on your feet. Nothing else occurs to me. Night and day I think of you. That alone is my practice. I know nothing else but the Name. This I have come to know as my own truth. Tuka says: at the hour of death, set me free at once.
What it means
Tukaram reports a love that has narrowed his whole attention to one point. His mind no longer wanders to other things, because it is fixed on the Lord's feet day and night, and he treats this constant attention itself as his entire spiritual discipline. He claims to know nothing besides the Name, and he calls this his deepest, most personal truth rather than a borrowed teaching. The poem ends by naming the stake: he asks that at the final moment, the hour of death, this love be honored and he be released without delay.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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