Devotion, choosing servanthood over release
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जळो माझी ऐसी बुद्धी । मज घाली तुजमधीं । आवडे हे विधि । निषेधीं चि चांगली ॥1॥
तूं स्वामी मी सेवक । उंच पद निंच एक । ऐसें करावें कौतुक । नको करूं खंडणा ॥ध्रु.॥
जळ न खाती जळा । वृक्ष आपुलिया फळा । भोक्ता निराळा । तेणें गोडी निवडिली ॥2॥
हिरा शोभला कोंदणें । अळंकारीं मिरवे सोनें । एक असतां तेणें । काय दुजें जाणावें ॥3॥
उष्णें छाये सुख वाटे। बाळें माते पान्हा फुटे । एका एक भेटे । कोण सुख ते काळीं ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे हित । हें चि मानी माझें चित्त । नव्हे आतां मुक्त । ऐसा जाला भरवसा ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let such a buddhi of mine be burned, for it casts me into You. I love this way: even prohibition itself becomes beautiful. You are the Master and I the servant; one exalted and one lowly. Maintain this beautiful play and do not break it. Water does not consume water; a tree does not eat its own fruit. The enjoyer is separate, and by that separation, sweetness is tasted. A diamond is adorned by its setting; gold is displayed through ornament. Yet being one, what second thing is there to know? In heat one delights in shade; at the sight of her babe, a mother's milk flows. When one meets the other, what joy is in that hour! Says Tuka, my chitta considers this its truest good. Now mukti shall not come: so firm is this conviction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let this thinking of mine be burned, the thinking that throws me into You. I love this way: even the no, the prohibition, is good to me. You are the master, I am the servant. One high, one low. Keep this play going. Do not break it. Water does not eat water. A tree does not eat its own fruit. The enjoyer stays apart, and by that the sweetness is tasted. A diamond shines in its setting. Gold is shown off in the ornament. But if there is only one, what second thing is there to know? In the heat, shade feels sweet. When the baby comes, the mother's milk lets down. One meets the other: what a joy in that moment. Tuka says: my mind holds this as its real good. Now mukti will not come to me. So sure am I of this.
What it means
Tukaram is refusing oneness in favor of relationship. He wants God to keep the difference of master and servant, high and low, because only when two stand apart can love be tasted, the way water cannot drink water and a tree cannot eat its own fruit. His images all need two, the diamond and its setting, the heat and the shade, the baby and the mother whose milk flows at the sight of it: the sweetness lives in the meeting, not in the collapse. So he openly says he no longer wants mukti, liberation into the One, because that would dissolve the very relationship that is his joy. The radical claim is that he prefers being God's servant forever over being absorbed into God.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
More in this theme →