Prayer, make good your name as Purifier
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जन्मांतरीं शुद्ध नाहीं आचरण । यालागीं चरण अंतरले ॥1॥
वोडवलें संचित येणें जन्में पाहतां । आतां पंढरिनाथा कृपा करीं ॥ध्रु.॥
पतितपावन िब्रद साच करीं देवा । यालागी कुढावा करीं माझा ॥2॥
अपराधी पातकी दृष्ट दुराचारी । अहाळलों भारी संवसारें ॥3॥
कामक्रोध आदि कल्पनेच्या त्रासें । तुज न पवें ऐसें जालें देवा ॥4॥
हा ना तोसा ठाव जाला पांडुरंगा । नये चि उपेगा काय करूं ॥5॥
आपुलिया नांवा धांवणिया धांवें । लवकरी यावें तुका ह्मणे ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Through many lifetimes my conduct was not pure, and that is why Your feet remained distant. Now, looking at what my accumulated karma has brought in this birth, I pray, O Lord of Pandhari, be merciful. Make Your pledge of being the Purifier of the Fallen come true, O God; take pity on me. I am a wrongdoer, a wrongdoer, corrupt and vile, exhausted by this worldly existence. Desire and anger and the torments of imagination have kept me from reaching You, O Lord. I have found no refuge anywhere, O Panduranga; nothing I try proves of any use. Says Tuka, true to Your own Name, O swift deliverer, come to me quickly.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Through past lives my conduct was not pure. That is why your feet stayed far from me. I look at what my piled-up karma has brought in this birth. Now, Lord of Pandhari, be merciful. Make your pledge true, God: that you purify the fallen. So take pity on me. I am a sinner, corrupt and vile, worn out by this worldly life. Desire and anger and the torment of imagining have kept me from reaching you, God. I have found no refuge anywhere, Panduranga. Nothing I try is of any use. Tuka says: true to your own Name, swift deliverer, come to me quickly.
What it means
Tukaram traces his distance from God back to impure conduct across many lives, and faces honestly what his accumulated karma has now made of him. Rather than claim worthiness, he reaches for God's own title, Purifier of the Fallen, and asks God to make that pledge true precisely on a case like his. He confesses the real obstacles by name: desire, anger, and the endless churn of imagination, which have blocked the path and left him without any refuge that works. The prayer rests everything on God's reputation, asking Panduranga to live up to the Name and come quickly, since the fallen are exactly whom that Name is for.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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