Devotion over liberation, refusing moksha
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मोक्ष तुमचा देवा । तुह्मी दुर्लभ तो ठेवा ॥1॥
मज भक्तीची आवडी । नाहीं अंतरीं ते गोडी ॥ध्रु.॥
आपल्या प्रकारा । करा जतन दातारा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भेटी । पुरे एक चि शेवटीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your liberation, O God, is Your own affair. Keep that difficult treasure for Yourself. What I love is devotion; I have no taste for the sweetness of final release. Guard Your own possessions carefully, O generous Lord. Says Tuka, all I ask is one meeting with You, just that, at the very end.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your liberation is yours, God. Keep that rare treasure for yourself. What I love is devotion. The sweetness of release does not draw my heart. Look after your own things, generous Lord. Tuka says: all I ask is one meeting with you, just one, at the very end.
What it means
Tukaram turns down the prize most seekers crave. Moksha, final liberation, is precious and hard to win, and he hands it straight back to God: keep it, it is yours. He has no taste for it; what he wants is the love itself, the act of devotion, not the reward that supposedly ends it. The radical move is to treat release from rebirth as God's private possession rather than the soul's goal. In place of it he asks for one thing only: to meet his Lord face to face, once, at the close of life.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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