Autobiography, rescued and brought home
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मार्ग चुकले विदेशीं एकले । तयावरि जाले दिशाभुली॥1॥
हातीं धरूनियां पावविलें घरा । त्याच्या उपकारा काय द्यावें ॥2॥
तैसा मी कुडकुडा होतों केशीराजा । सेवा न घडे लाजा ह्मणऊनि ॥ध्रु.॥
सांडियेला गर्भ उबगोनि माउली । नाहीं सांभािळली भूमि शुद्ध ॥3॥
उष्ण तान भूक एवढिये अकांतीं । वोसंगा लाविती काय ह्मणिजे ॥4॥
खांद्यावरी शूळ मरणाचे वाटे। अन्याय हि मोटे साच केले ॥5॥
हातींचें हिरोनि घातला पाठीसी। तुका ह्मणे ऐसी परी जाली ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I had lost my way in a foreign land, all alone, with no sense of direction. Someone took me by the hand and brought me home. What can I give in return for such kindness? Just so, O Lord Keshi, I was pitiable and shivering, unable to serve You, ashamed of myself. Like a mother who abandoned her newborn, with the ground itself left uncleansed. In the scorching heat, suffering hunger and thirst in that desolation, to be taken upon the lap, what can one call it? A stake upon the shoulders and the dread of death along the road, even great injustices were borne as though they were just. What was in my hand was snatched away, and I was cast behind. Says Tuka, such is the turn my fate has taken.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I had lost my way, alone in a foreign land, and on top of that I lost all sense of direction. Someone took me by the hand and led me home. What can I give in return for such kindness? Just so was I, Lord Keshiraja: trembling and wretched, unable to serve you, ashamed of myself. I was like a child a mother abandoned out of weariness, left on unclean ground, not cared for. In scorching heat, in hunger and thirst, in such desolation, to be lifted onto the lap, what can one call that? A stake on the shoulder and death along the road, and even great wrongs were borne as if they were just. What was in my hand was snatched away, and I was thrown behind. Tuka says: this is the turn my fate has taken.
What it means
Tukaram tells his own rescue as the story of a lost traveler. He was alone in a strange country and had lost even his sense of direction, an image for a soul astray with no way back, when God took him by the hand and brought him home. He measures his own unworthiness honestly: shivering, wretched, unable to serve, like a child a tired mother had left on dirty ground. Against that he sets the wonder of being lifted onto the lap in the middle of heat and hunger, of having harsh things turned to good, of being relieved of his own grasping and set safely behind the Lord. The poem is a confession of helplessness answered by sheer grace, and the only response left is gratitude that cannot be repaid.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
More in this theme →