Confession, the leftover scraps
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जेविले ते संत मागें उष्टावळी । अवघ्या पत्रावळी करुनी झाडा ॥१॥
सोवळ्या ओंवळ्या राहिलों निराळा । पासूनि सकळां अवघ्यां दुरीं ॥ध्रु.॥
परें परतें मज न लागे सांगावें । हें तों देवें बरें शिकविलें ॥२॥
दुसर्यातें आम्ही नाहीं आतळत । जाणोनि संकेत उभा असे ॥३॥
येथें कोणीं कांहीं न धरावी शंका । मज चाड एका भोजनाची ॥४॥
लांचावला तुका मारितसे झड । पुरविलें कोड नारायणें ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The saints have eaten and gone; I remain behind with the leftover scraps and the leaf-plates to clean. I stayed apart from both the ritually pure and the ritually impure, separate from all. No one needs to teach me the rules of high and low; God himself has taught me well. I do not touch another's portion; I stand knowing my appointed place. Let no one harbor any doubt; I care only for the meal of devotion. Tuka says: I have taken the bribe from Narayana, and now I rush about eagerly. The desire is fulfilled.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The saints have eaten and gone, and I am left behind with the scraps and the used leaf-plates to clear away. I have stayed apart, off to one side, away from both the ritually pure and the ritually impure. No one needs to teach me what is high and what is low; God himself has taught me well. I do not reach for anyone else's portion; I stand in the place that is mine. Let no one here have any doubt about me: the only thing I hunger for is the meal of devotion. Tuka says: I have taken Narayana's bribe, and now I rush about eagerly, my one craving satisfied.
What it means
Tukaram turns the language of caste-purity inside out with quiet irony. He casts himself as the lowly one left to clear the saints' used leaf-plates, and says he keeps apart from the whole pure-and-impure system, not because he is shut out but because God has taught him to see past it. He wants no one else's share and no rank; his only hunger is for devotion, the meal that matters. The closing image is playful: God has bribed him with love, and now he scurries about happily, a man owned by the one craving he is glad to have.
Confession and Sin
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