Single-pointed devotion, the cowherds' rare joy
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ओळखी तयांसी होय एका भावें । दुसरिया देवें न पविजे ॥1॥
न पविजे कदा उन्मत्त जालिया । डंबु तो चि वांयां नागवण ॥2॥
वनवास देवाकारणें एकांत । करावीं हीं व्रततपें याग॥3॥
व्रत याग यांसी फळलीं बहुतें । होतीं या संचितें गौिळयांची ॥4॥
यांसी देवें तारियेलें न कळतां । मागील अनंता ठावें होतें ॥5॥
होतें तें द्यावया आला नारायण । मायबापां रीण गौिळयांचें ॥6॥
गौिळयांचें सुख दुर्लभ आणिकां । नाहीं ब्रह्मादिकां तुका ह्मणे ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He can be known only through single-pointed devotion. By no other means can God be reached. He can never be attained by the intoxicated and the proud. Pretense and ego are only self-deception. The purpose of solitude, of forest-dwelling, of vows, austerities, and rituals, is to reach God. All these bore fruit for the cowherds through their accumulated merit. God saved them without their even knowing it; their past was known to the Infinite One. He came as Narayana to give what was due, to repay His debt to the parents and cowherds. Says Tuka, the joy of the cowherds is beyond the reach of even Brahma and the gods.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He is recognized only by single-pointed love; by no other god is He reached. He is never reached by the drunk and proud; their show is only useless ruin. Forest-dwelling for God's sake, solitude, the keeping of vows and austerities and sacrifices: vow and sacrifice bore much fruit for the cowherds; this was their store of merit. God saved them without their knowing; the Infinite One knew their past. Narayana came to give what was theirs, to repay His debt to the cowherd parents. Tuka says: the joy of the cowherds is hard for others to reach; even Brahma and the gods do not have it.
What it means
This poem names the one thing that reaches God and the one thing that bars the way. He is recognized only by undivided love; pride and intoxicated self-display, even when dressed as devotion, end in nothing but ruin. Tukaram does not throw away vows, austerities, and forest discipline; he says their whole purpose is to reach God, and that the cowherds' simpler love already carried the merit such practices aim at. The striking claim is that God saved them before they even knew it and came as if repaying a debt He owed them. The verse ends by ranking their joy above Brahma and the gods, putting humble single-hearted love higher than any cosmic station.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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