Gratitude, the gift I could never repay
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय तुझे उपकार पांडुरंगा । सांगों मी या जगामाजी आतां ॥1॥
जतन हें माझें करूनि संचित । दिलें अवचित आणूनियां॥ध्रु.॥
घडल्या दोषांचें न घली च भरी । आली यास थोरी कृपा देवा ॥2॥
नव्हतें ठाउकें आइकिलें नाहीं । न मगतां पाहीं दान दिलें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे याच्या उपकारासाटीं । नाहीं माझें गाठीं कांहीं एंक ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How shall I describe Your favors to the world, O Panduranga? You carefully preserved my store of merit and then placed it unexpectedly before me. You do not add to the account of sins already committed; great is this mercy, O God. I had never known of it, had never even heard of it; yet without my asking, the gift was given. Says Tuka, I have nothing in my own possession with which to repay this kindness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How can I tell the world of Your kindnesses, O Panduranga? You guarded my hidden store of merit and then placed it before me without warning. You do not add to the account of the sins I had already done; great is this mercy, O God. I did not know of it, I had not even heard of it, yet without my asking the gift was given. Tuka says: for all this kindness I have nothing of my own to pay You back with.
What it means
Tukaram tries to count God's favors and finds them past telling. He says God quietly kept safe the merit he had stored up and then, when he least expected it, brought it out and handed it to him. And God refuses to keep adding to the ledger of sins he had already committed, which Tukaram calls a great mercy. The favor was entirely unearned and unsought: he did not know of it, had never heard of it, yet it came. The poem ends in the honest bankruptcy of gratitude: he has nothing of his own with which to repay a gift he never asked for.
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