Lowly devotion, bring what little you have
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझे थोर थोर । भक्त करिती विचार ॥1॥
करुणावचनें । म्यां भाकावीं तुह्मां दीनें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे घेई । माझें थोडें फार ठायीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Your great devotees engage in lofty reflection about You. I, a lowly one, can only offer words of tender pleading. Says Tuka, accept whatever little or much I have, right here.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Your great, great devotees take up lofty reflection about You. I am a lowly one. All I can do is plead to You with tender words. Tuka says: take it, accept whatever I have, a little or a lot, right here.
What it means
Tukaram sets himself beside God's mighty devotees and admits he is not of their kind. They reach God through high contemplation; he cannot. What he has instead is helpless, tender pleading, the cry of a poor man. So he does not try to bring what he lacks. He offers exactly what he has, whether it counts for little or much, and asks God to accept it as it is, on the spot. The poem makes lowliness itself the offering.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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