Prayer, spare the erring child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां तरी माझी परिसा वीनवती । रखुमाईच्या पति पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
चुकलिया बाळा न मारावें जीवें । हित तें करावें मायबापीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुझा ह्मणताती मज । आतां आहे लाज हे चि तुह्मां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now hear my humble plea, O Lord of Rakhumai, O Panduranga. Do not strike a wayward child to death; it is the duty of parents to seek the child's welfare. Says Tuka, they call me Yours. The honor to uphold is Yours now.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now hear my humble plea, O Lord of Rakhumai, O Panduranga. Do not strike a wayward child dead. Parents are meant to seek their child's good. Tuka says: they call me Yours. The honor to keep now is Yours.
What it means
Tukaram comes as a child who knows he has gone wrong and pleads not for reward but for mercy. He invokes the relationship itself: a parent does not kill a straying child, a parent works for the child's welfare, so let God act as the parent he is. Then he presses the claim home by naming what is at stake for God, not for himself. The world calls him God's own; if God now lets him fall, it is God's name, God's honor, that suffers. He makes his own rescue a matter of the Lord's good name.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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