Devotion, the love of speaking to God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सांगों काय नेणा देवा । बोलाची त्या आवडी ॥1॥
वांयां मज चुकुर करा । विश्वंभरा विनोदें ॥ध्रु.॥
आवडीच्या करा ऐसें। अंतर्वासें जाणतसां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे समाधानें । होइन मनें मोकळा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You know everything, O God, yet this love of words keeps arising. In Your playfulness, O Vishvambhara, You slip away from me for no reason. Do as Your affection dictates. You who dwell within already know. Says Tuka, through contentment, my mind shall become open and free.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What can I tell You, O God, that You do not know? Still this love of words keeps rising in me. In Your playfulness You slip away from me for no reason, O Vishvambhara. Do as Your affection moves You. You who dwell within already know my heart. Tuka says: through contentment, my mind will become open and free.
What it means
Tukaram knows God needs no information from him, yet he cannot stop speaking, because love wants to talk to the beloved. He reads God's apparent absences as play, not rejection, the teasing of one who is sure of being loved. He hands the matter over to God's affection and notes that God, dwelling within, already knows everything he could say. The resolution is inward: contentment, not a louder demand, is what will leave his mind open and free. The poem turns longing into a settled, playful trust.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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