Confession, the sin of sloth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां जी माझे जीवीं । आळस ठेविला गोसावीं ॥1॥
येवढा घात आणीक काय । चिंतनासी अंतराय ॥ध्रु.॥
देहआत्म वंदी । केला घात कुबुद्धी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मन । कळवळी वाटे सीण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why, O Lord, have You placed laziness in my jiva? What greater harm could there be? It obstructs my contemplation of You. The body-worshipping intellect has wrought this ruin. Says Tuka, the mind trembles and feels great pain.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why, Lord, have you set this laziness in my heart? What greater harm could there be than this? It blocks me from remembering you. The mind that worships the body has done this ruin. Tuka says: my mind aches, and I feel the pain of it.
What it means
Tukaram makes a confession that treats sloth as no small flaw but as the gravest harm, because it stands between him and the remembrance of God. He half blames the Lord for placing it in him, then names the true source: an intellect that takes the body and its comfort as the self, and so will not bestir itself toward God. The poem points the accusation at this pattern of body-clinging laziness rather than at any other person. He ends not with excuse but with felt pain, the ache of a mind that knows it is failing the one thing that matters.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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