Bold lament, a lawsuit against God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देवा तुज मज पण । पाहों आगळा तो कोण ॥1॥
तरी साच मी पतित । तूं च खोटा दिनानाथ ।
ग्वाही साधुसंत जन। करूनि अंगीं लावीन ॥ध्रु.॥
आह्मी धरिले भेदाभेद । तुज नव्हे त्याचा छेद ॥2॥
न चले तुझे कांहीं त्यास । आह्मी बळकाविले दोष ॥3॥
दिशा भरल्या माझ्या मनें । लपालासी त्याच्या भेणें ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे चित्त । करी तुझी माझी नीत ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O God, let us have a wager, You and I, and see who proves the greater. I am truly a wrongdoer, and You are a false protector of the downtrodden. I will call the saints and the people as witnesses and prove it against You. We have clung to duality and division, and You cannot cut through it. Nothing You do prevails against it; we have seized hold of faults with both hands. My mind has filled every direction, and You hide in fear of it. Says Tuka, let the chitta itself be judge and settle the case between us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
God, let us make a wager, You and I, and see who is the greater. Then it is true: I am the sinner, and You are the false protector of the helpless. I will call the saints and the people as witnesses and fasten the charge on You. We have held tight to division and difference, and You have not cut it away. Nothing You do reaches it. We have seized our faults with both hands. My mind has spread into every direction, and You hide in fear of it. Tuka says: let the heart itself be judge and settle the case between You and me.
What it means
Tukaram dares to put God on trial, framing the eternal problem of grace as a courtroom wager. He concedes his own guilt freely, then turns the charge around: if You are called the protector of the fallen and the fallen are still not lifted, then the title is false. He summons the saints as witnesses and presses the suit. The complaint underneath the bravado is real. The devotee cannot, by his own effort, cut through the duality and the faults he clings to, and he accuses God of standing back, even hiding, while the restless mind runs wild. The boldness is itself a form of intimacy and surrender: he asks the inner heart to judge the case, which is a way of throwing the whole impossible knot back into God's hands.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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