Confession, the false servant
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ह्मणवितों दास न करितां सेवा । लंडपणें देवा पोट भरीं ॥1॥
खोटें कोठें सरे तुझे पायांपाशीं । अंतर जाणसी पांडुरंगा॥ध्रु.॥
आचरण खोटें आपणासी ठावें । लटिकें बोलावें दुसरें तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसा आहें अपराधी । असो कृपानिधी तुह्मां ठावा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I call myself a servant but do no real service; I fill my belly through sheer idleness in Your name. Falsehood has no place at Your feet, O Panduranga; You know the innermost truth. My conduct is corrupt and I know it myself; I speak fine words to others that are all pretense. Says Tuka, I am indeed a great offender; but You, O treasury of mercy, know me through and through.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I call myself Your servant but I do no service. Like a lazy good-for-nothing I fill my belly in Your name. Where can falsehood pass at Your feet, Panduranga? You know what is inside me. My conduct is false and I know it myself; the fine words I speak to others are all a lie. Tuka says: this is the kind of offender I am. Still, treasury of mercy, You know me through and through.
What it means
Tukaram turns the inspection on himself and names the gap between the title he claims and the life he lives. He calls himself a servant of God but does no real service, and admits he uses God's name to feed himself in idleness. The force of the confession is that no pretense survives at Vitthal's feet, because God reads the inner self that other people cannot see. He owns that his outward fine talk is a performance and his actual conduct is corrupt, and rather than hide it he hands the whole exposed self over to the one he calls a treasury of mercy.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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