Confession, the tongue that wounds
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नो बोलावें ऐसें जनासी उत्तर । करितों विचार बहु वेळा ॥1॥
कोण पाप आड ठाकतें येऊन । पालटिति गुण अंतरींचा ॥ध्रु.॥
संसारा हातीं सोडवूनि गळा । हें कां अवकळा येती पुढें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सेवे घडेल अंतराय । यास करूं काय पांडुरंगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I resolve many times over not to give such harsh answers to people. What sin stands in the way, appearing before me and changing the very nature of my inner temperament? I have freed my neck from the grip of worldly life, yet why do these failings keep coming forward? Says Tuka, O Panduranga, if an obstacle arises in my service, what am I to do?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I should not give people such harsh answers; I think this over again and again. What sin keeps stepping in front of me and turning my inner nature around? I have pulled my own neck free of worldly life, so why do these failings keep coming forward? Tuka says: O Panduranga, if this puts an obstacle in my service, what am I to do?
What it means
Tukaram confesses a fault he keeps falling back into: speaking harshly to people even after resolving not to. He examines himself honestly, asking what it is inside him that overrides his good intention and changes his temper. The pain is sharper because he has already cut himself loose from worldly attachment, yet the failing returns anyway. His real fear, which he lays before Panduranga, is not the harm to his reputation but that this habit could come between him and his service of God.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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