Confession, the words are not mine
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पायांच्या प्रसादें । कांहीं बोलिलों विनोदें ॥1॥
मज क्षमा करणें संतीं । नव्हे अंगभूत युक्ति ॥ध्रु.॥
नव्हे हा उपदेश । तुमचें बडबडिलों शेष ॥2॥
तुमचे कृपेचें पोसणें । जन्मोजन्मीं तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By the grace of Your feet I have spoken a few words in jest. Let the saints forgive me; this skill is not my own. This is no teaching of mine; I have merely babbled the leftovers of what is Yours. Says Tuka, birth after birth, I am nourished by Your grace.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By the grace of Your feet I have spoken a few words in jest. Saints, forgive me. This skill is not my own. This is no teaching of mine. I have only babbled the leftovers of what is Yours. Tuka says: birth after birth, I am fed by Your grace.
What it means
Tukaram steps back from his own poems to disown any credit for them. Whatever he has said came by the grace of God's feet, not from a talent he owns, and he asks the saints to forgive whatever was spoken lightly. He insists it is no teaching of his: he has merely repeated the scraps of what already belongs to God. The closing line names what he does claim, that across every birth he is sustained by that grace alone. The poem turns the act of speaking into an act of humility and gratitude.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
More in this theme →