The child's plea to be forgiven
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
केली कटकट गाऊं नाचों नेणतां । लाज नाहीं भय आम्हां पोटाची चिंता ॥१॥
बैसा सिणलेती पाय रगडूं दातारा । जाणवूं द्या वारा उब जाली शरीरा ॥ध्रु.॥
उशिरा उशीर किती काय म्हणावा । जननिये बाळका कोप कांहीं न धरावा ॥२॥
तुझिये संगतीं येऊं करूं कोल्हाळ । तुका म्हणे बाळें अवघीं मिळोन गोपाळ ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have made a commotion, singing and dancing without knowing how, feeling no shame or fear, only the worry of my belly. Sit down, you are tired; let me rub your feet, O Generous One, and let the breeze cool your body. Forgive my delay, for a mother should hold no anger toward her child. Says Tuka, we children will come to your company and raise a joyful uproar, all the little cowherds gathered together.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I made a racket, singing and dancing though I do not know how, with no shame and no fear, only the worry of my belly. Sit down, you are tired; let me rub your feet, O Generous One, and let the breeze cool your body. How long can my lateness be scolded? A mother should hold no anger against her child. Tuka says: we children will come into your company and raise a happy uproar, all the little cowherds gathered together.
What it means
Tukaram comes to God as a clumsy, hungry child rather than a polished worshipper. He admits his devotion is a noisy, untrained racket, sung and danced without skill, driven partly by the simple need of his belly, and he feels neither shame nor fear about it. Then he turns servant, offering to rub God's tired feet and fan a breeze over him. The heart of it is the appeal to a mother's love: a parent does not stay angry at a late or awkward child, so God should not either. The longed-for end is the joyful uproar of all the cowherd children crowding into Krishna's company, where being a child, not being correct, is what wins the welcome.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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