Surrender, the body cast as offering
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जें जें केलें तें तें साहे । कैसें पाहें भाविक ॥1॥
ओंवाळूनि माझी काया । सांडिली यावरूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
काय होय नव्हें करूं । नेणें धरूं सत्ता ते ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कटीं कर । उभें धीर धरूनि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whatever has been done, He endures it all. How wonderfully faithful He is. Having waved my body as an offering over His feet, I have cast it aside. Whether something can or cannot be done, I do not know how to hold that authority. Says Tuka, with hands upon His hips, He stands there, having taken up His patient resolve.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever has been done, he bears it all. See how full of faith he is. I waved my body over him like a lamp in offering, and then I threw it away. Whether a thing can be done or cannot, I do not know how to hold that power. Tuka says: with his hands on his hips, he stands there, holding firm.
What it means
Tukaram describes a complete handing over. He has performed the gesture of waving his own body over the Lord, the way a lamp is waved in arati, and then discarded it; the self is no longer his to manage. He confesses he no longer holds any authority to decide what can or cannot happen, having given that up. The faith he praises is God's own steadiness: God bears whatever is done. The final image is striking and tender, of Vitthal standing on the brick with hands on hips, patient and unmoving, while the devotee surrenders everything into that stillness.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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