Confession, I alone am at fault
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मी च विखळ मी च विखळ । येर सकळ बहु बरें॥1॥
पाहिजे हें क्षमा केलें । येणें बोलें विनवणी ॥ध्रु.॥
मी च माझें मी च माझें । जालें ओझें अन्याय ॥2॥
आधीं आंचवला आधीं आंचवला । तुका जाला निमनुष्य ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I alone am impure, I alone am impure; everything else is perfectly fine. I ask for forgiveness; this is my humble plea. My faults are mine and mine alone; I bear the burden of my own wrongs. Says Tuka, I was unworthy from the start, and I have become less than human.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I alone am corrupt, I alone am corrupt; everyone else is perfectly fine. Please let this be forgiven; with these words I make my plea. Mine and mine only, the faults are mine; I carry the burden of my own wrongs. Tuka says: I failed from the very start; Tuka has become less than human.
What it means
This is a confession that takes the whole blame onto itself. Tukaram insists that he alone is impure and everyone else is good, a refusal to point the finger outward. He asks plainly for forgiveness and owns his faults as entirely his own, a weight he alone bears. The closing self-judgment is severe: he says he was unworthy from the beginning and has sunk below even the human. The posture is not despair for its own sake but the radical honesty of one who lays himself open before God and asks mercy.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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