Devotion, the pampered children
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां गाऊं तुज ओविया मंगळीं । करूं गदारोळी हरिकथा ॥1॥
होसि निवारिता आमुचें सकळ । भय तळमळ पापपुण्य ॥ध्रु.॥
भोगिले ते भोग लावूं तुझे अंगीं । अलिप्त या जगीं होउनि राहों ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी लाडिकीं लेंकरें । न राहों अंतरे पायांविण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now I will sing to You auspicious songs and raise a joyous clamor of sacred stories. You are the remover of all that troubles us: fear, anguish, sin, and merit alike. Whatever experiences we have lived through, we will lay them at Your account. In this world we will remain unattached and free. Says Tuka, we are Your pampered children; we cannot endure a moment's separation from Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now I will sing You auspicious songs and raise a joyous din of sacred stories. You remove all that troubles us: fear, anguish, sin and merit alike. Whatever we have lived through, we lay it at Your account; in this world we stay unattached and free. Tuka says: we are Your pampered children. We cannot bear a moment away from Your feet.
What it means
Tukaram sets devotion in the key of song and noise, the loud kirtan of Hari's stories. He claims that God takes away everything that weighs a person down, not only fear and anguish and sin but merit too, since clinging to one's good deeds also binds. So he refuses to carry his own record: he charges every experience to God's account and stays free inside the world. The closing image is intimate and bold. The devotees are spoiled children who simply will not endure separation from God's feet, and that refusal is itself their claim on Him.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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