Prayer, the treasury is in Your hands
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ह्मणऊनि काकुळती । येतों पुढतों पुढती । तुह्मां असे हातीं । कमळापती भांडार ॥1॥
फेडूं आलेती दरिद्र । तरी न लगे उशीर । पुरे अभयंकर । ठाया ठाव रंकाशी ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठें न घली धांव । याजसाठीं तजिली हांव । घेऊं नेदी वाव । मना केला विरोध ॥2॥
कारणांच्या गुणें । वेळ काळ तोही नेणें । तुमच्या कीर्तनें । तुका तुह्मां जागवी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Therefore I come again and again with folded hands. The treasury is in Your keeping, O Lord of Lakshmi. We have come to end our poverty; then let there be no delay. Grant us a place of fearlessness. We run nowhere else; for this reason, we have abandoned all craving. We do not allow the mind any room for resistance. Says Tuka, by Your own kirtan, I keep calling You awake at every hour and season.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
So I come pleading again and again. The treasury is in Your hands, O Lord of Lakshmi. We have come to end our poverty; then do not delay. It is enough, Giver of fearlessness, to grant the destitute a place to stand. We run nowhere else; for this I have given up all craving. I let the mind take no room to resist. By the power of the need, He forgets even time and season. Tuka says: with Your own kirtan, Tuka keeps You awake.
What it means
Tukaram comes back to God again and again because the whole treasury is in God's keeping; the poverty he wants ended is spiritual, and the gift he asks for the destitute is a place to stand and freedom from fear. He has cut off every other refuge and craving, and he refuses to let his own mind argue him out of this dependence. The closing image is bold and tender: the urgency of the need pulls God past all sense of the right time, and Tuka, through ceaseless kirtan, keeps singing until he rouses the Lord himself. It is prayer as loving insistence, not polite request.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
More in this theme →