Protest, sin and merit are illusion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अमच्या कपाळें तुज ऐसी बुिद्ध । धरावी ते शुद्धी योगा नये ॥1॥
काय या राहिलें विनोदावांचून । आपुलिया भिन्न केलें आह्मां ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठें मूिर्त्तमंत दावीं पुण्यपाप । काशासी संकल्प वाहाविसी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां आवरावा चेडा । लटिकी च पीडा पांडुरंगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Alas, upon our foreheads such is Your design: the very purity we would hold cannot be attained through yogic effort. What was the point of all this except sport? You have made us separate from Yourself. Show me where sin and merit stand as tangible forms. Why do You burden us with intentions and consequences? Says Tuka, now call off this mischief, O Panduranga; this torment is all an illusion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Such is the lot you wrote on our foreheads: the very purity we reach for cannot be won by yogic effort. What was any of this for, except your play? You made us separate from yourself. Show me where sin and merit stand as solid things. Why do you load us with intentions and their results? Tuka says: now call off this trick, Panduranga; this torment is all a lie.
What it means
Tukaram argues that the whole apparatus of striving, sin, and merit is a fiction God himself set up. He says the purity people chase through yoga is unreachable by such effort, so the effort was never the real path. He challenges God to point to where sin and merit actually exist as tangible things, since they do not, and asks why he is then weighed down by intentions and their consequences. The demand he lands is blunt: the separation and the moral bookkeeping are a game and a false torment, and Panduranga should simply call it off.
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