Lord Vitthal

jaya deva jaya deva jaya pāṃḍuraṃgā

(Jai Dev Jai Dev Jai Panduranga Marathi in English (IAST))

The lamp arati of the Pandharpur sequence, and it opens by admitting the difficulty of offering light to the self-luminous: every brightness there is is already his. What is offered instead is named exactly. The three bodies, gross and subtle and causal, are the three wicks, and love is what kindles them, so the flame going round before Panduranga is the worshipper's own make-up burnt down to affection. The second verse is plainer than the first: at the sight of him a flood of love rises, and singing the name without a break carries one over. It closes on the poet's own signature, Vishnudasa, asking not for release but for one thing only, that this taste for his service never be interrupted.

jaya deva jaya deva jaya pāṃḍuraṃgā|
dīpārati ovāl̤ū tujalā jivalagā||
svayaṃprakāśā tūjhī sarvahī dīpti|
pūrṇānaṃda prāpta karitāṃ tava bhakti||
dehatraya vātī pājal̤onī prītī|
ovāl̤itoṃ premeṃ devā tujapratī||1||
deva tuja pāhatā yeto premapūra|
nāma niraṃtara gātāṃ hoto bhavapāra||
vāṭe tava bhaktī hī priyakara|
viṣṇudāsā deī akhaṃḍa hā vara||2||
|| iti saṃpūrṇam ||

Explore More