Prayer, You alone are my life
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जेजे कांहीं मज होईल वासना । तेते नारायणा व्हावें तुह्मीं ॥1॥
काय भाव एक निवडूं निराळा । जाणसी तूं कळा अंतरींची ॥ध्रु.॥
तुजविण मज कोण आहे सखा । जें सांगा आणिकां जीवभाव ॥2॥
अवघें पिशुन जालें असे जन । आपपर कोण नाठवे हें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे तूं चि जीवांचें जीवन । माझें समाधान तुझे हातीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whatever desire arises in me, may You become that very thing, O Narayana. How can I sort out my devotion as something separate? You know the inner workings of my heart. Who else is my companion besides You? To whom else would I entrust my very life? The whole world has turned hostile. No one remembers what belongs to self and what to another. Says Tuka, You alone are the life of all lives. My contentment is in Your hands.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever desire arises in me, may You become that very thing, O Narayana. How can I pick out one devotion as something apart? You know every working of my heart. Who else is my friend but You? To whom else could I tell the truth of my life? The whole world has turned hostile. No one remembers what is one's own and what is another's. Tuka says: You alone are the life of all that lives. My peace is in Your hands.
What it means
Tukaram prays that God will fill not just his worship but his every desire, so that there is no wanting left that points away from God. He says he cannot sort out a special devotion from the rest of himself, because God already knows the whole inner movement of his heart, the pure and the mixed alike. Set against a world he feels has turned faithless and self-serving, God is the one friend he can trust with his very life. The closing claim is total dependence: God is the life within all lives, and Tukaram's own peace is not in his hands but in God's.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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