Prayer, the child's cry to God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कांहीं जडभारी । पडतां ते अवश्वरी ॥1॥
तुज आठवावे पाय । आह्मीं मोकलूनि धाय ॥ध्रु.॥
तान पीडी भूक । शीत उष्ण वाटे दुःख ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लाड । तेथें पुरे माझें कोड॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When something heavy and burdensome falls upon this perishable body, we cry out to Your feet, O God, weeping aloud. Hunger and thirst torment us; heat and cold feel like suffering. Says Tuka, let my childish longing find its fulfillment at Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When something heavy and hard falls on this perishable body, we cry out to your feet and weep aloud. Thirst torments us, hunger torments us; heat and cold feel like pain. Tuka says: let my childish longing be fulfilled there, at your feet.
What it means
Tukaram comes to God the way a small child comes to a parent, with nothing to offer but its weeping. When the weight of the body, sickness, hunger, thirst, heat, cold presses on him, he does not pretend to be strong; he cries out and asks to be held. The whole prayer rests in calling his need childish, lada, a child's clamor that only love can quiet. He asks for no grand boon, only that this clinging find its rest at God's feet.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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