Prayer, austerities offered for one gift
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय देह घालूं करवती करमरी । टाकुं या भितरी अग्नीमाजी ॥1॥
काय सेवूं वन शीत उष्ण तान । साहों कीं मोहन धरुनी बैसों ॥ध्रु.॥
काय लावूं अंगीं भस्म उधळण । हिंडूं देश कोण खुंट चारी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे काय करावा उपाव । ऐसा देई भाव पांडुरंगा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Should I saw this body to pieces, or fling it into fire? Should I endure the forest's cold and heat and thirst, or sit fixed, holding to Mohan? Should I smear ash over my body and wander to the four corners of the earth? Says Tuka, what remedy shall I try? O Panduranga, just grant me that very bhav.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Shall I put this body to the saw, or fling it into the fire? Shall I live in the forest, bearing cold and heat and thirst, or sit holding fast to Mohan? Shall I smear ash on my limbs and wander to all four corners of the land? Tuka says: what remedy shall I try? Just give me that one love, O Panduranga.
What it means
Tukaram lays out the whole catalog of hard penances a seeker might attempt: cutting the body, throwing it into fire, enduring the forest's extremes, sitting in fixed meditation, smearing on ash and wandering everywhere. He raises each one only to ask whether any of them is the right remedy. The answer the poem points to is that none of these austerities is what he needs. What he begs Panduranga for instead is bhav, true devotion, the one inward gift that all the outward hardships could never earn.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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