Confession, stripped by sloth
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय करूं मज नागविलें आळसें । बहुत या सोसें पीडा केली ॥1॥
हिरोनियां नेला मुखींचा उच्चार । पडिलें अंतर जवळी च ॥ध्रु.॥
द्वैताचिया कैसा सांपडलों हातीं । बहुत करती ओढाओढी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां आपुलिया सवें । न्यावें मज देवें सोडवूनि ॥3॥
। त्याचे तोंडी पडे माती । हीन शूकराची जाती ॥ध्रु.॥
घोकुनी अक्षर। वाद छळणा करीत फिरे ॥2॥
ह्मणे देवासी पाषाण । तुका ह्मणे भावहीन ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What can I do? Laziness has stripped me bare, and this indolence has caused me great torment. It has snatched the very utterance from my lips, creating distance even when God is near. How have I fallen into the hands of duality, which drags me this way and that? Says Tuka, now, O Lord, take me along with You and set me free.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What can I do? Laziness has stripped me bare. This sloth has tormented me terribly. It has snatched the holy word right off my lips, and set a distance between us even though you stand near. How did I fall into the hands of duality, which drags me this way and that? Tuka says: now, O Lord, take me along with you, and set me free. Dust falls into his mouth; his is the low pig's nature. He memorizes the letters and roams about picking quarrels and mocking. He calls God a mere stone. Tuka says: he is empty of faith.
What it means
Tukaram confesses the quiet thief that is spiritual laziness: it has left him destitute, even taking the Name from his lips, so that God stands close while he feels far. He sees himself caught in duality, the sense of two-ness that yanks the mind back and forth, and he asks not to fix himself but to be carried off and freed by the Lord. The second fragment turns to a different figure, the man who has learned the scriptures by rote yet uses them only to argue and ridicule, even calling the deity a lifeless stone. Tukaram's verdict, empty of faith, points at the pattern rather than the man: learning without devotion curdles into mockery, and a mouth that should chant the Name fills instead with dust.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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