Bafflement, the servant who cannot read his own words
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां हो तुह्मी माझी वदविली वाणी । नेदा हे निवडूनि पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
आणीक म्यां कोणां पुसावा विचार । मुळीं संवसार दुराविला ॥ध्रु.॥
स्वामिसेवा ह्मुण घेतली पदरीं । सांगितलें करीं कारण तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणें नाहीं शिकविलें जेणें । तो याच्या वचनें उगा राहे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why, O Panduranga, have You set my tongue in motion and yet will not let me sort out the meaning? Whom else shall I consult, when You have estranged me from the world at its very root? I took up this service saying it was the master's work; I do whatever task is assigned. Says Tuka, the one who never taught me these things now sits silent at the sound of these very words.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why did you set my tongue going, Panduranga, and then not let me sort out the meaning? Whom else am I to ask? You have cut me off from the world at its very root. I took up this service saying it was the master's work, and I do whatever task you hand me. Tuka says: the one who never taught me these words now sits silent at the sound of them.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as a servant given speech he does not fully understand. He says Vitthal moved his tongue to sing yet withheld the meaning, and he has no one else to ask because the same God has pulled him away from the world he might once have consulted. He keeps doing the assigned work as the master's own, not his. The closing turn is the strange part: the God who never schooled him in these words now falls silent before them, leaving the singer alone inside speech that came through him but is not his to explain.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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