Surrender, your ways past my understanding
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दुर्बळाचें कोण । ऐके घालूनियां मन । राहिलें कारण। तयावांचूनि काय तें ॥1॥
कळों आलें अनुभवें । पांडुरंगा माझ्या जीवें । न संगतां ठावें । पडे चर्या देखोनि ॥ध्रु.॥
काम क्रोध माझा देहीं । भेदाभेद ोले नाहीं । होतें तेथें कांहीं । तुज कृपा करितां॥2॥
हें तों नव्हे उचित । नुपेक्षावें शरणागत । तुका ह्मणे रीत । तुमची आह्मां न कळे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who will listen attentively to the poor? Without Him, what purpose remains? Experience has revealed this to me, O Panduranga: without being told, You see the state of one's life. Desire and anger dwell in my body; the words of distinction and unity are meaningless there. Had You shown grace, even that might have been remedied. This is not fair; the one who has surrendered should not be ignored. Says Tuka, Your ways are beyond our understanding.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Who will set his mind to listen to the poor? Without him, what purpose is left? Experience has taught me this, Panduranga, with my own life: without being told, you see the state of a person. Desire and anger live in my body. There the words of difference and oneness mean nothing. Had you shown grace, even that might have been healed. This is not right. The one who has surrendered should not be ignored. Tuka says: your ways are beyond our understanding.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as the helpless poor man whom no one else will hear, for whom God is the only purpose left. He confesses honestly that desire and anger still live in him, that the fine talk of difference and non-difference cannot touch that knot; only grace could have healed it. So his prayer turns into gentle protest: it is not right to ignore one who has surrendered. The closing line lets the complaint rest in trust, admitting that God's ways are past human understanding even when they wound.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →