Cry for rescue, snared by desire
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हिंडवुनि पोट भरी दारोदारीं । कोंडुनि पेटारी असेरया ॥1॥
तैसी परी मज जाली पांडुरंगा । गुंतलों तो मी गा सोडीं आतां ।
माझें मज कांहीं न चलेसें जालें । कृपा तुज न करितां ॥ध्रु.॥
आविसें मिनु लावियला गळीं । भक्ष तो गिळी म्हणउनियां ।
काढूनि बाहेरी प्राण घेऊं पाहे । तेथे बापुमाये कवण रया ॥2॥
पक्षी पिलयां पातलें आशा । देखोनियां फांसा गुंते बळें ।
मरण नेणें माया धांवोनि वोसरे । जीवित्व ना जालीं बाळें ॥3॥
गोडपणें मासी गुंतली लिगाडीं । सांपडे फडफडी अधिकाअधिक ।
तुका म्हणे प्राण घेतला आशा । पंढरीनिवासा धाव घालीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Like a performing animal led from door to door to fill its keeper's belly, then shut inside a box: just so has been my fate, O Panduranga. I am entangled; release me now. Nothing of mine is in my own hands without Your grace. Like a fish whose throat is hooked on bait it swallowed greedily, being drawn out with its very life being taken. Who is there as father or mother in that moment? Like a bird that flies to feed its young and is caught in a snare by force; it does not know death is near, love drives it on, and it can save neither its own life nor its children. Like a fly entangled in sweetness, struggling, sinking deeper and deeper. Says Tuka, desire has taken my very breath. O Dweller of Pandhari, come rushing to my aid.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Like a performing animal led door to door to fill its keeper's belly, then shut in a box: such is my fate, O Panduranga. I am entangled; release me now. Nothing of mine is in my own hands without your grace. Like a fish whose throat is hooked on the bait it greedily swallowed, being dragged out as its very life is taken: who is father or mother in that moment? Like a bird that flies to feed its young and is caught by force in a snare; it does not know death is near, love drives it on, and it can save neither its own life nor its children. Like a fly stuck in something sweet, struggling, sinking deeper and deeper. Tuka says: desire has taken my very breath. O Dweller of Pandhari, come rushing to my aid.
What it means
Tukaram cries out that desire has trapped him, and he piles up images of creatures caught by their own appetites. The fish swallows the bait and is hauled out to die; the bird flies to feed its young and is snared; the fly lands on sweetness and sinks deeper the more it struggles. In each case the very thing that drew them is what kills them, and no one can help them in that moment. He names his own state as exactly this: entangled, unable to free himself by his own strength. So he turns the whole weight of the poem into a single plea to Panduranga, the Dweller of Pandhari, to come and pull him out, because grace alone can do what his own hands cannot.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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