Adoration, the incomparable Lord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देऊं ते उपमा । आवडीनें पुरुषोत्तमा ॥1॥
पाहातां काशा तूं सारिखा । तिंहीं लोकांच्या जनका ॥ध्रु.॥
आरुष हे वाणी। गोड वरूनि घेतां कानीं ॥2॥
आवडीनें खेळे । तुका पुरवावे सोहाळे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What comparison can I offer You with love, O Purushottama? Looking carefully, who in all three worlds resembles You, O Father of all? This voice of mine is rough and harsh; yet taken into the ears, it turns sweet. Says Tuka, with love He plays; let these celebrations of joy be fulfilled.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What likeness shall I offer you, with love, O Purushottama? Look as I will, who in the three worlds is like you, Father of all? This voice of mine is rough. Yet taken into the ear, it turns sweet. Tuka says: with love he plays. Let these celebrations of joy be fulfilled.
What it means
Tukaram wants to praise God with a comparison and finds none, because nothing in the three worlds resembles Purushottama, the Father of all. He knows his own poetry is rough and unpolished, but he trusts that love makes it sweet once it reaches the listening ear, so the lack of skill is no barrier. Behind the praise is a sense that God himself plays in this exchange, delighting in the devotee's offering. The poem closes as a wish that this play of joy go on and be completed.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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