Confession, the restless monkey
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय करूं जी दातारा । कांहीं न पुरे संसारा ॥1॥
जाली माकडाची परि । येतों तळा जातों वरी ॥ध्रु.॥
घालीं भलते ठायीं हात । होती शिव्या बैस लात ॥2॥
आदि अंतीं तुका । सांगे न कळे झाला चुका ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O generous Lord, what shall I do? Nothing ever suffices for this worldly life. I have become like a monkey, going up and down ceaselessly. I put my hand into every affair and receive abuse and kicks in return. Says Tuka, from beginning to end I keep failing, and I cannot even tell where my mistakes lie.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
O generous Lord, what shall I do? Nothing is ever enough for this worldly life. I have become like a monkey, going down and climbing up again and again. I put my hand into every affair and get curses and kicks in return. Tuka says: from beginning to end I keep failing, and I cannot even tell where my mistakes lie.
What it means
Tukaram is confessing his own helplessness in worldly life and laying it before God. He likens himself to a monkey that never settles, scrambling up and down, never satisfied no matter what he gains. Meddling in every affair, he reaps only abuse and blows. The sharpest stroke is the last: he keeps failing from start to finish and cannot even locate his own mistakes. The confession turns toward the Lord because Tukaram knows that the way out of this restless, blind floundering is not his own cleverness but grace.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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