Surrender to providence, last resort
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कराल तें काय नव्हे जी विठ्ठला । चित्त द्यावें बोला बोबडिया ॥1॥
सोडवूनि घ्यावें काळचक्रा हातीं । बहुत विपत्ती भोगविल्या ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्यालें जेऊं नेदी मारिलें चि मरो । प्रारब्धा उरो मागुतालीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दुजा खुंटला उपाय । म्हणऊनि पाय आठविले ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Is there anything You cannot do, O Vitthal? Listen to my stammering words. Rescue me from the clutches of the wheel of Time; I have endured too many afflictions. Let it burn what it will and starve what it will and strike what it will; let past karma be exhausted once and for all. Says Tuka, every other remedy has failed; therefore I remember Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Is there anything You cannot do, O Vitthal? Give Your attention to my stammering words. Take me out of the hands of the wheel of Time. I have suffered many disasters. Let it starve what it will, let it kill what it will; let my past karma be spent once and for all. Tuka says: every other remedy has run out. That is why I have remembered Your feet.
What it means
Tukaram is throwing himself on God's power after exhausting his own. He owns that his prayer is clumsy, stammered, and asks God to listen anyway. The bold middle is a kind of consent: let the wheel of Time and past karma do their worst, starve and strike, so long as the debt is finally cleared. His point is not despair but surrender, the choice to let the consequences burn out rather than dodge them. The honest reason he turns to God's feet is that he has tried everything else and nothing was left.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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