Holding God to his title
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुह्मां होईल देवा पडिला विसर । आह्मीं तें उत्तर यत्न केलें ॥1॥
पतितपावन ब्रीदें मिरविसी । याचा काय देसी झाडा सांग ॥ध्रु.॥
आहाच मी नव्हें अर्थाचें भुकेलें । भलत्या एका बोलें वारेन त्या ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देह देईन सांडणें । सहित अभिमानें ओवाळूनि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Perhaps You have forgotten, O God. We have tried our best with every word. You parade the title Purifier of the Fallen. Now give an account of it. I am not hungry for wealth. I will ward off that hunger with whatever word comes. Says Tuka, I shall offer up this body, and with it all pride, waving it as an offering.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Maybe You have forgotten me, O God. We have tried everything we can say. You wear the title Purifier of the Fallen. Now give an account of it. I am not hungry for wealth. Any small word from You would end that hunger. Tuka says: I will give up this body. I will wave it away as an offering, and all my pride with it.
What it means
Tukaram takes God's own reputation and holds it up as a debt. The title "Purifier of the Fallen" is a claim about who God is; Tukaram demands that God live up to it now, on him. He insists he wants nothing material, only a word, a sign of being received. The last line shows the price he will pay: he offers his body and, harder still, his pride, surrendering the very self that has been bargaining. The poem turns God's name into a promise that cannot be left unkept.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →