Plea through the saints, the orphan
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जायाचें शरीर जाईल क्षणांत । कां हा गोपिनाथ पावे चि ना ॥1॥
कृपेचे सागर तुह्मी संत सारे । निरोप हा फार सांगा देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
अनाथ अज्ञान कोणी नाहीं त्यासि । पायापें विठ्ठला ठेवीं मज ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसें करावें निर्वाण । मग तो रक्षण करिल माझें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
This body will perish in an instant. Why then does Gopinath not come? You saints are all oceans of mercy. Please carry this message to God. I am an orphan, ignorant, with no one to call my own. Place me at the feet of Vitthal. Says Tuka, let this be the final settlement. Then He Himself will take charge of my protection.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This body will be gone in a moment. Why does Gopinath still not come? You saints are all oceans of mercy. Please carry this message to God. I am an orphan, ignorant, with no one of my own. Lay me at Vitthal's feet. Tuka says: settle it once for all, this final settlement; then He Himself will take care of guarding me.
What it means
Tukaram is dying of impatience and sends his prayer through the saints, asking them to deliver his message to God. He presents himself with nothing to offer: no family, no learning, no one to call his own, only the urgency that the body could end at any instant. His one request is to be placed at Vitthal's feet, and he wants it made final and binding, a settlement that cannot be undone. The logic is that once God takes him on, the responsibility for protecting him passes to God, and he need carry it no longer.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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