राम
गाथा 744Surrender and Acceptance

Surrender, worship without distinction

Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram

मराठी मूळ

हे चि तुझी पूजा । आतां करीन केशीराजा ॥1॥

अवघीं तुझींच हें पदें । नमस्कारीन अभेदें ॥ध्रु.॥

न वजिनतदिशा । जाय तेथें चि सरिसा ॥2॥

नव्हे एकदेशी । तुका ह्मणे गुणदोषीं ॥3॥

Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)

English Translation

This alone shall be my worship of You henceforth, O Keshiraja. All things are Your feet; I will bow to them without distinction. Wherever I turn, in every direction, You are equally present. Says Tuka, You are not limited to one place; You pervade both virtue and fault.

We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.

In Plain Words

From now on, this alone will be my worship of You, O Keshiraja. All of this is Your feet. I bow to it all, making no distinction. Wherever I turn, in every direction, You are right there. You are not held to one place. Tuka says: You are present in virtue and in fault alike.

What it means

Tukaram redefines worship as a way of seeing rather than a rite to perform. Because Keshiraja, Krishna, is everywhere, every direction he faces is already God's feet, so he bows without sorting things into holy and unholy. He refuses to confine God to a single shrine or a single kind of thing. The hard edge is in the last line: God is not only in what we call good but equally in what we call fault, so there is nowhere left to withhold reverence.

शरणागति

Surrender and Acceptance

The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.

More in this theme →