Prayer, Pandhari and nothing else
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझे पाय माझें भाळ । एकत्रता सर्वकाळ ॥1॥
हें चिं देई विठाबाई । पांडुरंगे माझे आई ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं मोक्ष मुक्ति चाड । तुझी सेवा लागे गोड ॥2॥
सदा संग सज्जनांचा । नको वियोग पंढरीचा ॥3॥
नित्य चंद्रभागे स्नान । करीं क्षेत्रप्रदक्षण॥4॥
पुंडलीक पाहोन दृष्टी । हषॉ नाचों वाळवंटीं ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे पांडुरंगा । तुझें स्वरूप चंद्रभागा ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let Your feet rest upon my forehead at all times. Grant me this, O Vitthabai, O Panduranga, my Mother. I have no desire for liberation or heavenly rewards. Your service alone is sweet to me. May I always have the company of the saints. Let there be no separation from Pandhari. Let me bathe daily in the Chandrabhaga and circumambulate the sacred precincts. Let me behold Pundalik with my eyes and dance with joy in the sand-bed of Pandhari. Says Tuka, O Panduranga, the Chandrabhaga itself is Your very form.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let Your feet rest on my forehead at all times. Give me only this, Vithabai, Panduranga, my Mother. I have no longing for liberation or release. Your service alone tastes sweet to me. Let me always have the company of the good. Let there be no separation from Pandhari. Let me bathe each day in the Chandrabhaga and walk around the holy ground. Let me see Pundalik with my own eyes and dance with joy in the sand by the river. Tuka says: Panduranga, the Chandrabhaga itself is Your own form.
What it means
Tukaram lays out a whole life of devotion as a single prayer, addressing Panduranga tenderly as Vithabai and Mother. He refuses the usual goal, liberation, saying God's service alone is sweet to him, and asks instead for the things of Pandhari: the saints' company, the daily bathe in the Chandrabhaga, the walk around the holy precinct, the sight of Pundalik, the dance in the riverside sand. Every wish keeps him at the shrine rather than carrying him beyond it. The last line shows why these are not lesser things: the river Chandrabhaga is God's own form, so to want Pandhari is already to want God, and union is sought in the place itself, not somewhere past it.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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