Confession, an unworthy servant claimed anyway
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हें दास खरा । परि जाला हा डांगोरा ॥1॥
यासी काय करूं आतां । तूं हें सकळ जाणता ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं पुण्यगाठीं । जे हें वेचूं कोणासाठीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कां उपाधी । वाढविली कृपानिधी ॥3॥
ऐसे आह्मी जाणों दास । ह्मणोनि जालों उदास ॥ध्रु.॥
तुह्मी दिला धीर। तेणें मन झालें िस्थर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आड । केलों मी हें तुझें कोड॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I am not a true servant, yet this proclamation has been made. What can be done about it now? You know everything. I have no store of merit to spend on anyone's behalf. Says Tuka, why have You increased this worldly complication, O Treasury of mercy? We know what it means to be Your servants; that is why we have become detached. You gave us courage, and thereby our minds became steady. Says Tuka, I have stood in Your way; that was Your own playful wish.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am not a true servant, yet this announcement has gone out about me. What can I do about it now? You know all of it. I have no store of merit saved up; what would I spend, and on whose behalf? Tuka says: why have you piled up this trouble for me, treasury of mercy? This is how we have come to know what being your servants means; that is why we have grown detached. You gave me courage, and by that my mind grew steady. Tuka says: I got in your way; this was your own playful doing.
What it means
Tukaram protests that his reputation as a devotee has outrun the truth of him; the name servant of God has been proclaimed about a man who feels he has not earned it. He owns that he has no hoard of good works to draw on, and asks, half complaining, why God would burden him with such a role. But the protest turns into surrender: it is precisely by being claimed as God's servant that he has learned what that means and let go of the world. He credits the steadiness of his mind not to himself but to the courage God gave him. In the end he calls his own resistance God's playful arrangement: even getting in the way was God's doing.
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