Prayer, empty hands, folded hands
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जोडोनियां कर । उभा राहिलों समोर ॥1॥
हें चि माझेंभांडवल।जाणे कारण विठ्ठल ॥ध्रु.॥
भाकितों करुणा । आतां नुपेक्षावें दीना ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे डोई । ठेवीं वेळोवेळां पायीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
With folded hands I stand before You. This alone is my capital, and Vitthal knows it well. I plead for mercy; do not neglect the helpless now. Says Tuka, again and again I place my head at Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
With folded hands I stand before You. This alone is all I have, and Vitthal knows why. I cry out for mercy: do not turn away from the helpless now. Tuka says: again and again I lay my head at Your feet.
What it means
Tukaram comes before God owning nothing he can offer except the gesture of asking. Folded hands are his whole capital, his entire wealth, and he says Vitthal knows the reason, that this emptiness is exactly what brings a beggar to the door. From that poverty he pleads for mercy and presses the one claim a helpless person has: that the helpless are precisely whom mercy is for, so God must not overlook him. The repeated bowing of his head at the feet is the prayer made physical, asked over and over because he has no other argument and no other place to go.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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