Prayer, reckless love for God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
करीं ऐसें जागें । वेळोवेळां पायां लागें ॥1॥
प्रेम झोंबो कंठीं । देह धरणिये लोटीं ॥ध्रु.॥
राहे लोकाचार पडे अवघा विसर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ध्यावें । तुज विभीचारभावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Grant me this: that I may fall at Your feet again and again, awake in devotion. Let love seize me by the throat. Let this body be cast to the ground. Let all worldly custom fall away; let all else be forgotten. Says Tuka, I would worship You with the reckless, illicit ardour of one who has crossed every boundary for love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Make me this awake: that I fall at your feet again and again. Let love seize me by the throat; let this body be flung down to the ground. Let worldly custom fall away; let everything else be forgotten. Tuka says: I would worship you with the reckless, illicit ardour of one who has crossed every boundary for love.
What it means
Tukaram asks not for calm devotion but for a love that overwhelms him completely. He wants to be kept so awake to God that he falls at his feet over and over, to be gripped by love at the throat, to be thrown bodily to the ground, to lose all sense of propriety and forget everything that is not God. The startling image in the last line names the intensity exactly: he wants to love God the way an adulterous lover loves, with the reckless, all-risking ardour of one who has thrown decency and reputation to the wind. The claim is that respectable, measured worship is too small; only a love that breaks the rules is fierce enough for God.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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