Joy of arrival, the body offered
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपुलाला लाहो करूं । केणें भरूं हा विठ्ठल ॥1॥
भाग्य पावलों या ठाया । आतां काया कुरवंडी ॥ध्रु.॥
पुढती कोठें घडे ऐसें । बहुतां दिसें फावलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जाली जोडी । चरण घडी न विसंभें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let each one claim their own share and fill their vessel with Vitthal. What fortune that I have reached this holy place. Now let my body be an offering. When will such an occasion arise again? After many days this chance has come. Says Tuka, this union has been won. I will not leave His feet for a single moment.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let each one take their own share. Let everyone fill their vessel with this Vitthal. What good fortune, that I have reached this place. Now let my body be the offering. When will such a moment come to me again? After so many days, this chance has come at last. Tuka says: this union is won. I will not let go of his feet for even one moment.
What it means
Tukaram is standing where he longed to stand, and he names both the gift and his answer to it. Vitthal is not a private hoard; he tells everyone to come and fill their own vessel. For himself, having reached this holy place, the only fitting return is to lay down his own body as the offering. He treats the moment as rare and not to be wasted, a chance that came after long waiting. Now that the union is finally his, he refuses to loosen his hold on the feet for a single instant.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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