Devotion, pleading for one morsel
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुम्ही तरी सांगा कांहीं । आम्हांविशीं रखुमाबाई ॥१॥
कांहीं उरलें तें ठायीं । वेगीं पाठवुनी देई ॥ध्रु.॥
टोकत बैसलों देखा । इच्छीतसें ग्रासा एका ॥२॥
प्रेम देउनि बहुडा जाला । तुका म्हणे विठ्ठल बोला ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Will you not speak to Him about us, Rukhmabai, on our behalf? If any remnant has been left over, send it to me quickly. I sit here gazing, longing for just one morsel. Says Tuka, speak the word 'Vitthal' and send me on my way with your love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Will you not say something to Him about us, Rakhumai? If anything has been left over there, send it to me quickly. Look, I sit here waiting, longing for just one mouthful. Tuka says: give me your love and send me on my way; only say the word, Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram approaches Rukhmini, Vitthal's consort, as the one who can put in a word for him with God. The image is a humble petitioner at the table's edge, begging not for plenty but for a single leftover morsel. That morsel is grace and the taste of the Lord's love; he is content with even a scrap of it. He asks her to intercede, to send him away satisfied with that love, and the one thing he wants spoken is the name Vitthal. It is a posture of total smallness before God, asking for the least and trusting that the least from Him is enough.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →