Confession, bound to the senses
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
इंिद्रयांचीं दिनें । आह्मी केलों नारायणें ॥1॥
ह्मणऊनि ऐसें सोसीं । काय सांगों कोणांपाशी ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं अंगीं बळ । त्याग करींसा सकळ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मोटें । प्रारब्ध होतें खोटें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Narayana made me a slave of the senses. That is why I endure such suffering. To whom can I even tell my plight? I have no strength in my body to renounce everything. Says Tuka, my destiny has been exceedingly cruel.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Narayana made me a slave of the senses. So I bear it like this; to whom shall I even tell it? There is no strength in my body to renounce it all. Tuka says: in a great heap my destiny has come out crooked.
What it means
This is a confession of helplessness, and it dares to lay the bondage at God's own door: it was Narayana who made him a slave of the senses. There is no one to complain to, because the maker of the trouble is also the only one who could end it. Tukaram admits plainly that he does not have the strength in himself to renounce everything, so he cannot lift the burden by willpower. Naming his destiny as crooked is not self-pity for its own sake; it is the honesty that comes before grace, the admission that he cannot save himself and must be carried.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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