Devotion, only one God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सांडुनियां पंढरीराव । कवणातें ह्मणों देव ॥1॥
बहु लाज वाटे चित्ता । आणिकांतें देव ह्मणतां ॥ध्रु.॥
सांडुनियां हिरा । कोणें वेचाव्या त्या गारा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे हरिहर । ऐसी सांडुनियां धुर ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Having abandoned the Lord of Pandhari, whom else can I call God? It fills my heart with shame to call anything else divine. Having set aside a diamond, who would go picking up pebbles? Says Tuka, why abandon the supreme ones, Hari and Shiva?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If I set aside the Lord of Pandhari, whom else can I call God? It shames my heart to call anything else divine. Once you have a diamond, why go picking up pebbles? Tuka says: why abandon the supreme ones, Hari and Shiva?
What it means
Tukaram says his devotion has only one place to go. Having known Vitthal, the Lord of Pandhari, he finds he cannot give the name of God to any other power; even the wish to do so makes him ashamed. He frames the choice with a plain image: a man who holds a diamond does not stoop for pebbles. To leave the highest, Hari and Shiva, for lesser gods would be exactly that exchange, and so he refuses it.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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