Confession, I show what I have not seen
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नेणें काुंफ्कों कान । नाहीं एकांतींचें ज्ञान ॥1॥
तुह्मी आइका हो संत । माझा सादर वृत्तांत ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं देखिला तो डोळां। देव दाखवूं सकळां ॥2॥
चिंतनाच्या सुखें । तुका ह्मणे नेणें दुःखें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I do not know how to close my ears to the world; I have no knowledge born of solitude. O saints, please hear my humble account. I have not seen God with my own eyes, yet I go about showing Him to all. Says Tuka, absorbed in the joy of contemplation, I know nothing of sorrow.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I do not know how to shut my ears to the world; I have no knowledge that comes from solitude. Listen, O saints, to my honest account. I have not seen him with my own eyes, yet I go about showing God to everyone. Tuka says: in the joy of remembering him, I know nothing of sorrow.
What it means
Tukaram makes a frank confession before the saints rather than a boast. He admits he has not mastered the disciplines, he cannot close his ears to the world, and he has no knowledge born of solitary practice. He even owns the apparent contradiction in his work: he points others to a God he has not seen with his eyes. What he does have is the joy of constant remembrance, and he reports that this joy has emptied his life of sorrow. The honesty is the teaching: the path here runs through loving recollection, not through credentials he lacks.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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