Prayer, strip away the clinging self
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सोळा सहस्र होऊं येतें । भरलें रितें आह्मापें ॥1॥
ऐसे तुह्मां ठायाठाव । देव ह्मुण संपादे ॥ध्रु.॥
कैची चिरामध्यें चिरे। मना बरें आलें तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे पांडुरंगा । अंगलगा भिन्न करा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I could have become sixteen thousand, filling and emptying at will. Such, O God, is the capacity You hold, making room wherever needed. What stacking of logs upon logs is this? The mind simply takes what pleases it. Says Tuka, O Panduranga, separate what clings to the body.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I could have become sixteen thousand, filling and emptying at will. Such is the room You hold, O God; You make space wherever it is needed. What stacking of logs upon logs is this? The mind just takes whatever pleases it. Tuka says: O Panduranga, take this clinging to the body away from me; set it apart.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts God's boundless capacity with the cramped grasping of his own mind. God can fill and empty endlessly, making room wherever it is needed; the human mind instead piles up whatever it fancies, log upon log, cluttering itself. He sees his own attachment as this useless heaping. So the prayer is plain: Panduranga, separate me from what clings to the body, the bodily identification that keeps me grasping. He asks God to do the work of detachment that he cannot do alone.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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