Prayer, the lost child and the mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बोलोनि दाऊं कां तुह्मी नेणा जी देवा । ठेवाल तें ठेवा ठायीं तैसा राहेन ॥1॥
पांगुळलें मन कांहीं नाठवे उपाय । ह्मणऊनि पाय जीवीं धरूनि राहिलों ॥ध्रु.॥
त्यागें भोगें दुःख काय सांडावें मांडावें । ऐसी धरियेली जीवें माझ्या थोरी आशंका ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माते बाळा चुकलिया वनीं । न पवतां जननी दुःख पावे विठ्ठले ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Should I speak, or do You not already know, O God? Whatever You place before me, I shall remain there as You set me. My mind has grown lame; I can think of no remedy. That is why I hold Your feet within my very jiva and remain. In renunciation there is suffering, in enjoyment there is suffering. What is there to abandon or adopt? A great anxiety has seized my jiva. Says Tuka, O Vitthal, when a child is lost in the forest and the mother cannot reach it, the child suffers.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Should I speak it out, or do you not already know, O God? Whatever place you put me in, there I will stay, just so. My mind has gone lame; no remedy comes to it. So I have caught your feet within my life and stayed there. There is suffering in giving up, and suffering in enjoying; what is there to drop, what to take up? This great doubt has gripped my life. Tuka says: O Vitthal, when a child is lost in the forest and cannot reach its mother, the child suffers.
What it means
Tukaram lays his helplessness openly before God, admitting he has run out of remedies and even out of clear sentences. He has tried the two usual paths, renunciation and enjoyment, and found suffering waiting in both, so he no longer knows what to abandon or pursue. Stuck in that doubt, he stops choosing and simply clings to God's feet, willing to remain wherever God places him. The closing image names the stakes: he is a child lost in the forest, and the pain is the pain of not reaching the mother. The prayer leaves the whole burden of finding with God.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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