Prayer, the weak soul asking for the Name
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हेव निग्रह देहासी दंडण । न वजे भूकतान सहावली ॥1॥
तरि नित्य नित्य करीं आळवण । माझा अभिमान असों द्यावा ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका ह्मणे भवसागरीं उतार । कराया आधार इच्छीतसें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I cannot punish this body with austerity; I cannot endure hunger and thirst. Then let me call upon You ceaselessly every day. Let my sense of self remain undisturbed. Says Tuka, I wish only for a support to help me cross this ocean of worldly existence.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I cannot subdue this body with austerity. I cannot bear hunger and thirst. So let me call on You without stopping, every single day. Let my sense of self be left undisturbed. Tuka says: I want only one thing, a support to carry me across the ocean of worldly life.
What it means
Tukaram admits plainly that the hard road of self-mortification is not for him; he has no strength for fasting or punishing the body. In its place he asks for the one practice he can keep, calling on the Name ceaselessly, day after day. His request that his abhiman, his sense of self, be left undisturbed is not pride but honesty: he asks God to work with the ordinary self he actually is rather than demand its destruction first. The whole prayer reduces devotion to its simplest form, a single dependable support to ferry a weak soul across the sea of birth and death. Tukaram makes incapacity itself the ground of his appeal.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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