Surrender, the Lord appears after confession
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मागें सांडोनि सकळ बोभाट । वंदीं पदांबुजें ठेवुनि ललाट वो ॥१॥
कोणी सांगा या गोविंदाची शुद्धी । होतें वहिलें लपाला आतां खांदीं ।
कोठें आड आली हे देहबुद्धी । धांवा आळवीं करुणा कृपानिधी वो ॥ध्रु.॥
मागें बहुतांचा अंतरला संग । मुळें जयाचिया तेणें केला त्याग ।
पहिलें पाहातां तें हरपलें अंग । खुंटली वाट नाहींसें जालें जग वो ॥२॥
शोकें वियोग घडला सकळांचा । गेल्या शरण हा अन्याय आमुचा ।
केला उच्चार रे घडल्या दोषांचा । जाला प्रगट स्वामी तुकयाचा वो ॥३॥
काय उणें कां करिशील चोरी । किती सांगों तुज नाइकसी हरी ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Leaving behind all clamor, bow and place your forehead at his lotus feet. Has anyone news of Govinda? Before, he hid; now he has placed himself on my shoulders. Where did this body-consciousness intrude? Call out, plead, invoke the treasury of mercy. Long ago, many companions were lost; the very one who caused the attachment also brought about the parting. Looking back at the beginning, the body itself has vanished; the road ends, and the world disappears. Grief and separation from all have come upon me. I surrendered and confessed my faults. When I cried out the wrongs I had committed, Says Tuka, my Lord appeared.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Leaving all clamor behind, bow and place your forehead at his lotus feet. Has anyone news of Govinda? Before, he hid; now he has set himself on my shoulders. Where did this body-consciousness get in the way? Call out, plead, invoke the treasury of mercy. Long ago many companions were lost; the very one who caused the attachment also brought the parting. Looking back to the beginning, the body itself has vanished. The road ends; the world disappears. Grief and separation from all have come upon me. I surrendered and confessed my faults. When I cried out the wrongs I had done, Tuka says: my Lord appeared.
What it means
Tukaram traces the path from hiddenness to revelation, and names body-consciousness as the one thing that stood in the way. God who once seemed absent is now carried on the very shoulders, and to reach this the seeker had to lose every other companion and attachment, including the sense of being a separate body. The poem names the stakes by describing the dissolution honestly: the road ends, the world disappears, and grief at the parting from all things comes first. The claim it lands is the order of events. It was surrender and the open confession of one's own faults, not any merit, that made the Lord appear. The crying out of the wrongs is what opens the door.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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