Confession, experience over words
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मज माझा उपदेश । आणिकां नये याचा रीस ॥1॥
तुह्मी अवघे पांडुरंग । मी च दुष्ट सकळ चांग ॥ध्रु.॥
तुमचा मी शरणागत । कांहीं करा माझें हित ॥2॥
तुका पाय धरी । मी हें माझें दुर करीं ॥3॥
जाणे त्याचें वर्म नेणे त्याचें कर्म । केल्याविण धर्म नेणवती ॥2॥
मैथुनाचें सुख सांगितल्या शून्य । अनुभवाविण कळूं नये ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जळो शािब्दक हें ज्ञान । विठोबाची खूण विरळा जाणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My own teaching is meant for myself; let no one else be vexed by it. You are all forms of Panduranga; I alone am the wicked one, and all of you are good. I am your refugee; please do something for my welfare. Says Tuka, I hold Your feet: remove this 'mine' from within me. One who knows the secret does not know the ritual; without actually practicing dharma, its truths cannot be known. The bliss of union, if merely described, remains empty; without direct experience it cannot be understood. Says Tuka, let mere verbal knowledge burn away; the true mark of Vithoba is known only to the rare one.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My teaching is for myself. Let no one else be vexed by it. You are all forms of Panduranga; I alone am the wicked one, and all of you are good. I am your refugee; do something for my welfare. Tuka holds Your feet: take this 'mine' away from me. One who knows the secret does not know the ritual; without practicing dharma, its truths are never known. The bliss of union, merely described, is empty; without experience it cannot be understood. Tuka says: let mere word-knowledge burn. The mark of Vithoba is known to a rare one.
What it means
Tukaram first turns all judgment back on himself: his teaching is aimed at his own faults, and he sees every other being as a form of God and himself alone as the flawed one. From that low place he begs God to remove the one root word, mine, the sense of possession that fuels the ego. Then he states the deeper point: spiritual truth is not information. The one absorbed in the living secret may not even know the outward rituals, and dharma cannot be known without being practiced. He compares it to the joy of union: describe it all you like, words stay empty until you have lived it. So he asks that bookish, verbal knowledge burn away, for the true sign of Vithoba is reached only by the rare soul who has tasted it.
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