Surrender, the helpless one
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्रियामतिहीन । एक मी गा तुझें दीन ॥1॥
देवा करावा सांभाळ । वारीं माझी तळमळ ॥ध्रु.॥
नको माझे ठायीं । गुणदोष घालूं कांहीं ॥2॥
अपराधाच्या कोटी । तुका ह्मणे घालीं पोटीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I am devoid of both action and understanding. I am simply Your helpless one, O God. Please look after me and quiet my restless anguish. Do not reckon my virtues and faults. Says Tuka, take my millions of offenses and swallow them in Your great belly.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have no good deeds and no understanding. I am only Your helpless one, O God. Look after me. Quiet this restlessness in me. Do not weigh my virtues and my faults at all. Tuka says: take my millions of offenses and swallow them inside You.
What it means
Tukaram comes to God owning nothing, neither right action nor right knowledge, and makes that emptiness the whole basis of his plea. He asks not to be judged: do not weigh what is good in me against what is bad, because such an accounting would sink me. Instead he asks God to take in his countless offenses and absorb them, the way a belly swallows what is fed to it. This is the logic of grace over merit: the one who can claim nothing throws himself entirely on the mercy of the one who can hide everything.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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