Devotion, where feeling is, God comes
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मनीं भाव असे कांहीं । तेथें देव येती पाहीं ॥1॥
पाहा जनाई सुंदरी । तेथें देव पाणी भरी ॥ध्रु.॥
शुद्ध पाहोनियां भाव । त्याचे हृदयीं वसे देव ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विठोबासी । ठाव देई चरणापासीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where there is true feeling in the mind, there God comes, without question. Look at the devout Janai: God Himself carried water for her. Seeing pure devotion, God takes up residence in that mind. Says Tuka, give Vithoba a place at your feet in your own mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where there is some true feeling in the mind, there, see, God comes. Look at Janai, the lovely one: there God Himself drew water for her. Seeing feeling that is pure, God lives in that heart. Tuka says: give Vithoba a place near His own feet, in you.
What it means
The teaching here is that God responds to the heart, not to display. Wherever genuine feeling rises in the mind, God draws near, and Tukaram offers the saint Janai as proof: her love was so real that the Lord Himself stooped to carry water for her. Purity of devotion is what makes a heart fit for God to dwell in. The closing line turns it into instruction for the listener: make room within yourself for Vithoba, set Him at His own feet inside you, and the same nearness that came to Janai becomes possible.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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