Devotion, surrender to Govinda alone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शिव शक्ति आणि सूर्य गणपति । एक चि ह्मणती विष्णूस ही ॥1॥
हिरा गार दोनी मानिती समान । राजस भजनें वांयां जाती ॥ध्रु.॥
अन्य देवतांसि देव ह्मणऊन । तामस जीवन तमोयोग्या ॥2॥
वांयां जायासाठीं केलासे हव्यास । अन्य देवतांस देवपण ॥3॥
आपुलिया मुखें सांगतसे धणी । नव्हे माझी वाणी पदरींची ॥4॥
धन्य ते वैष्णव भजती केशव । साित्वक हे जीव मोक्षा योग्य ॥5॥
तुका ह्मणे मोक्ष नाहीं कोणापासीं । एका गोविंदासी शरण व्हा रे ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Those who say Shiva, Shakti, Surya, Ganapati, and Vishnu are all the same treat a diamond and a pebble as equal. Their rajasic worship goes to waste. Those who call other deities equal to God follow the tamasic path, fit only for darkness. All effort spent on elevating other deities to the status of the supreme God is wasted. The Lord Himself declares this through His own mouth; these are not my own words. Blessed are those Vaishnavas who worship Keshava. They are sattvic souls, worthy of liberation. Says Tuka, liberation does not reside with any other. Surrender to Govinda alone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those who say Shiva, Shakti, Surya, Ganapati, and Vishnu are all the same treat a diamond and a pebble as equal. Their rajasic worship goes to waste. To call other deities equal to God is the tamasic way, fit only for darkness. All effort spent raising other deities to the highest place is wasted. The Lord says this through his own mouth; these are not my own words. Blessed are the Vaishnavas who worship Keshava. They are sattvic souls, fit for liberation. Tuka says: liberation rests with no other; surrender to Govinda alone.
What it means
This abhanga makes an exclusive claim and does not soften it. Tukaram says that flattening all deities into one sameness is not large-heartedness but a failure to tell a diamond from a pebble, and such worship bears no fruit. He grades the paths by the three gunas: such leveling is rajasic or tamasic, while devotion to Keshava alone is sattvic and leads to release. To guard against pride, he insists the claim is not his own invention but the Lord's own word. The stakes are liberation itself, which he says is found in surrender to Govinda and nowhere else.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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