Confession, lost on both sides
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळों आला भाव माझा मज देवा । वांयांविण जीवा आठविलें ॥1॥
जोडूनि अक्षरें केलीं तोंडपिटी । न लगे सेवटीं हातीं कांहीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझे गेले दोन्ही ठाय । सवसार ना पाय तुझे मज ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My true state has become clear to me, O God. I have been calling upon You in vain. Stringing words together, I have beaten my own mouth, yet in the end nothing has come to hand. Says Tuka, I have lost both worlds. Neither worldly life nor Your feet are mine.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My true state has become clear to me, O God. I have remembered you to no purpose. I strung words together and beat my own mouth, but in the end nothing came into my hands. Tuka says: I have lost both my places. Neither worldly life nor your feet are mine.
What it means
Tukaram makes a bare confession of failure, saying he finally sees what he really is. He admits that his remembrance of God has been empty, his many crafted verses just so much mouth-beating that left his hands empty at the end. The painful conclusion is that he has fallen between two stools: he gave up worldly life, yet has not reached God's feet either, so he holds neither. This is the honest low point of the devotional path, where self-satisfaction collapses. Naming the emptiness without excuse is itself the turn, the place from which real surrender can begin.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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