Confession, the blade in Your hand
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लोक ह्मणती मज देव । हा तों अधर्म उपाव ॥1॥
आतां कळेल तें करीं । सीस तुझे हातीं सुरी ॥ध्रु.॥
अधिकार नाहीं। पूजा करिती तैसा कांहीं ॥2॥
मन जाणे पापा । तुका ह्मणे मायबापा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
People call me a god; that is a sinful notion. Now do whatever You know to be right; the blade is in Your hand. I have no authority, yet people worship me as though I do. Says Tuka, O Mother and Father, the mind knows its own sins.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
People call me a god. That is a sinful idea. Now do whatever you see is right; the knife is in your hand, and my head beneath it. I have no such authority, yet people worship me as if I do. Tuka says: O Mother and Father, the mind knows its own sins.
What it means
Tukaram is recoiling from the reverence others place on him. To be called a god is to him a sin, a false claim he refuses to wear. He surrenders himself completely to Vitthal, laying his head under the blade and inviting God to do whatever is just. The danger he feels is real: people worship him as though he holds an authority he knows he does not have, and he will not let the lie stand. The last line is the heart of the confession, that whatever others see, his own mind knows the truth of its sins, and he speaks it openly to God as a child to a parent.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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