Devotion, the feet are all pilgrimage
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझे पाय माझी काशी । कोण जाय माझें काशी॥1॥
तुझें रूप तें चि ध्यान । तें चि माझें अनुष्ठान ॥ध्रु.॥
तुझे चरण ते चि गया । जालें गयावर्जन देहा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सकळ तीथॉ । तुझें पायीं वसती येथें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your feet are my Kashi; who needs to go to any other Kashi? Your form is my meditation; that is my daily practice. Your feet are my Gaya; by them, the body's pilgrimage to Gaya is fulfilled. Says Tuka, all the sacred places dwell right here at Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your feet are my Kashi. Why should anyone go to some other Kashi? Your form is my meditation. That alone is my practice. Your feet are my Gaya. By them the body's pilgrimage to Gaya is done. Tuka says: all the holy places dwell here, at your feet.
What it means
Tukaram collapses the whole map of sacred geography into the Lord's feet. Pilgrims travel to Kashi for liberation and to Gaya to release the dead; he says he needs neither journey, because both shrines are already present in Vitthal. Gazing on the Lord's form is the only meditation he keeps, and bowing to his feet completes every rite the far places promise. The claim is radical and meant to be: the body's restless search for holy ground ends where the devotee already stands, since all the sacred sites live at those feet.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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