Autobiography, the soul's willful distance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहु कृपावंते माझीं मायबापें । मी माझ्या संकल्पें अंतरलों ॥1॥
संचितानें नाहीं चुकों दिली वाट । लाविलें अदट मजसवें ॥ध्रु.॥
आतां मी रुसतों न कळतां वर्म । परी ठावे धर्म सर्व देवा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे उभा राहिला न बैसे । आमची माय असे उद्वेग त्या ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My parents are exceedingly gracious, but I have become distant through my own willfulness. Destiny did not let me miss the path; it pressed itself hard upon me. Now I grow resentful, not knowing the vital secret, yet God knows all the ways of dharma. Says Tuka, He stands and does not sit; such is the restless concern of our Mother for us.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My mother and father are full of kindness. It is by my own willfulness that I have drifted away. My past deeds did not let me lose the path. They pressed themselves hard upon me. Now I sulk, not knowing the inner secret. Yet God knows every way of dharma. Tuka says: he stands and will not sit down. Such is our Mother's restless worry for us.
What it means
Tukaram lays the blame for his distance from God squarely on himself. His divine parents are wholly gracious; the gap came from his own willful turning away, even as his past karma kept driving him back toward the path. He admits he sulks without grasping the hidden point, while granting that God alone understands the whole law of how things work. The image he ends on is tender and reversing: the God he has wandered from stands anxious and will not even sit, fretting over the straying child the way a mother cannot rest, which makes his sulking look small against that watching love.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
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