Confession, anger is the only defilement
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आजि शिवला मांग । माझें विटाळलें आंग ॥1॥
यासी घेऊं प्रायिश्चत्त । विठ्ठलविठ्ठल हृदयांत ॥ध्रु.॥
जाली क्रोधासी भेटी । तोंडावाटे नर्क लोटी ॥2॥
अनुतापीं न्हाऊं । तुका ह्मणे रवी पाहूं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Today one I was taught to shun has touched me; my body has been defiled. For this I shall take atonement by chanting Vitthal, Vitthal from the heart. I met with anger today, and through my mouth it poured forth hellish filth. Says Tuka, let me bathe in remorse and then look upon the sun.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Today an outcaste touched me; my body has been defiled. For this I will take my atonement: Vitthal, Vitthal in the heart. Today I met with anger, and my mouth poured out filth like hell. Tuka says: let me bathe in remorse, then look upon the sun.
What it means
Tukaram seizes the language of ritual pollution and turns it inward against himself. The real defilement, he says, was not a person's touch but his own anger, which poured hellish filth out of his mouth. So the cleansing he prescribes is not a ritual bath but the name of Vitthal held in the heart and a sincere bath in remorse, after which he can again face the light. The poem rebukes the whole logic of caste pollution: blaming another for defiling you is itself the impurity. Watch your own anger, not your neighbor's touch.
Confession and Sin
Raw, unflinching accounts of personal failure, weakness, and the weight of sin.
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