Prayer, freed by direct experience
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुह्मी तों सदैव । आधरपणें माझी हांव ॥1॥
जळो आशेचें तें जिणें । टोंकतसावें दीनपणें ॥ध्रु.॥
येथूनि सोडवा । आतां अनुभवेंसी देवा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जालें । एक मग हें निमालें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You are ever fortunate; it is I whose greed keeps me grasping. Let the life of hope be burned away, this existence of begging in lowliness. Free me from this place now through direct experience, O Lord. Says Tuka, when oneness is achieved, all this shall pass away.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You are always fortunate. It is I, with my grasping, who keep clinging. Let this life of hope burn away, this begging in lowliness. Free me from this place now, by direct experience, O Lord. Tuka says: once oneness comes, all of this will pass away.
What it means
Tukaram sets his own poverty against God's fullness: God lacks nothing, and only Tukaram's own greed keeps him holding on. He wants the life of mere hoping burned away, the cringing posture of a beggar gone. So he asks for one thing, to be released from this condition not by argument but by direct experience of God. He names the stakes plainly: when oneness is realized, this whole grasping existence simply ends.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
More in this theme →