Devotion, hold me as your only one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विधवेसि एक सुत । अहनिनशीं तेथें चित्त ॥1॥
तैसा तूं मज एकला । नको मोकलूं विठ्ठला ॥ध्रु.॥
सुपुत्रालागीं बाप । अवघे तेथें चि संकल्प ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चित्तीं । पतिव्रते जैसा पति॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A widow has but one son, and day and night her chitta is fixed on him. Just so, You are my only one; do not abandon me, O Vitthal. As a father devotes all his hopes to a worthy son, so is my devotion to You. Says Tuka, as a faithful wife holds her husband in her chitta, so do I hold You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A widow has one son, and day and night her chitta is fixed on him. So are you to me, my only one: do not let me go, O Vitthal. As a father puts all his hopes in a worthy son, so my whole intent rests there. Tuka says: as a faithful wife holds her husband in her chitta, so I hold you.
What it means
Tukaram prays by piling up images of single-hearted attachment. He compares his hold on Vitthal to a widow with one son, a father pledged to a worthy child, and a faithful wife fixed on her husband, three bonds in which the whole heart is given to one and there is no second to fall back on. The frame the plain layer leaves unspoken is that each image is also a claim of dependence: the widow has no one else, so the loss would be total. That is why the refrain turns into a plea not to be let go. Tuka is asking God to honor the same exclusiveness he himself feels, to be to him what these undivided loves are to their object.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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