Surrender, these are not my words
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नव्हती माझे बोल । अवघें करितो विठ्ठल ॥1॥
कांहीं न धरावी खंती । हित होइल धरा चित्तीं ॥ध्रु.॥
खोटी ते अहंता । वाट टाकिली सांगतां ॥2॥
ज्याचें तो चि जाणें । मी मापाडें तुका ह्मणे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
These are not my own words. Vitthal does everything. Hold no sorrow; keep this in your chitta: your good will come. False is that ego-pride. In the very telling, the path to abandon it has been shown. Says Tuka, He alone knows what is His. I am merely His measure-holder.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
These are not my own words. Vitthal does everything. Hold no sorrow; keep this in your heart: your good will come. False is that ego-pride. In the very telling, the way to drop it has been shown. Tuka says: He alone knows what is His. I am only His measure-holder.
What it means
Tukaram empties himself of authorship: the words are not his, Vitthal does it all. From this he draws a comfort for the listener, telling them to let go of grief because their good is assured. The obstacle he names is the false sense of I, the ego-pride, and he says the cure is already given in the act of speaking these words, which themselves point the way out. He ends by making himself small: God alone knows what belongs to Him, and Tukaram is merely the one who holds the measure, the vessel through which the grain is poured. The whole abhanga hands the doing back to God.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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