Self-questioning, who really acts through me
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वाढविलें कां गा । तुह्मी एवढें पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
काय होती मज चाड । एवढी करावया बडबड ॥ध्रु.॥
ब्रह्मसंतर्पण । लोकीं करावें कीर्तन ॥2॥
निमित्याचा धणी । तुका ह्मणे नेणे कोणी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why, O Panduranga, have You made me grow so great? What desire had I that I should make such a clamor? To conduct the feeding of Brahmins, to perform kirtan before the people. Says Tuka, no one knows the true Master behind this occasion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why, Panduranga, have You made me grow so large? What need had I to make all this noise? The feeding of Brahmins; the kirtan done before people. Tuka says: no one knows who the real master behind the occasion is.
What it means
Tukaram turns on his own visible greatness and asks God why He has raised him so high, into feedings and public kirtans and all their stir. He disowns any personal appetite for the show: none of it was his wanting. The last line carries the point: people see Tukaram at the center of these events, but the true doer behind every occasion is God, and that goes unrecognized. It is a confession that the devotee is only the instrument, and a quiet refusal to take the credit that onlookers assign.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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