Confession, lust and anger still seated
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मजपुढें नाहीं आणीक बोलता । ऐसें कांहीं चित्ता वाटतसें ॥1॥
याचा कांहीं तुह्मीं देखा परिहार । सर्वज्ञ उदार पांडुरंगा ॥ध्रु.॥
काम क्रोध नाहीं सांडिलें आसन । राहिले वसोन देहामध्यें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां जालों उतराई । कळों यावें पायीं निरोपिलें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
It seems to me that no one else speaks before me. Please find some remedy for this, O all-generous Panduranga. Lust and anger have not left their seat; they continue to dwell in this body. Says Tuka, now I have become indebted. May it be known at Your feet that I have conveyed this message.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
It feels to me that no one else speaks before me. You see to some remedy for this, all-generous Panduranga. Lust and anger have not given up their seat; they go on living inside this body. Tuka says: now I have settled my account. Let it be known at Your feet that I have delivered this message.
What it means
Tukaram lays his unfinished business openly before God. He admits a kind of self-deception, as though no voice but his own is allowed to speak in him, and he asks generous Panduranga to find the cure, since he cannot. The plain confession at the center is that lust and anger have never vacated their place; they are still residents in his body, not banished guests. By saying it aloud he claims to have cleared his debt: he has at least reported the truth honestly. The poem makes confession itself the act of service, handing the whole problem to God's feet rather than pretending it is already solved.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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