Confession, asking to be made real
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काम क्रोध माझे जीताती शरीरीं । कोवळें तें वरी बोलतसें ॥1॥
कैसा सरतां जालों तुझ्या पायीं । पांडुरंगा कांहीं न कळे हें ॥ध्रु.॥
पुराणींची ग्वाही वदतील संत । तैसें नाहीं चित्त शुद्ध जालें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज आणूनि अनुभवा । दाखवीं हें देवा साच खरें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Lust and anger are alive in my body. On the surface, I speak only tender words. How have I come to be counted at Your feet, O Panduranga? I cannot understand this at all. The saints will speak the testimony of the Puranas, yet my chitta has not truly become pure. Says Tuka, bring me into experience. Show me what is real and true, O God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Lust and anger are still alive in my body. On the surface I speak only tender words. How have I come to be counted at Your feet, Panduranga? I cannot understand it at all. The saints will quote the testimony of the Puranas, yet my mind has not truly become pure. Tuka says: bring me into real experience. Show me what is true, O God.
What it means
Tukaram admits that lust and anger are not dead in him; they live on beneath his gentle speech. He cannot make sense of how someone like this has been granted a place at Panduranga's feet. He will not be consoled by scripture spoken over him: the saints may cite the Puranas in his favor, but he knows his own mind has not actually become pure. So he asks for the one thing words cannot give, real experience, the truth shown to him directly rather than asserted about him. It is a refusal to mistake borrowed testimony for genuine inner change.
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