Longing, the stranger calling home
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
येगा येगा पांडुरंगा । घेई उचलुनि वोसंगा ॥1॥
ऐसी असोनियां वेसी । दिसतों मी परदेसी ॥ध्रु.॥
उगवूनि गोवा । सोडवूनि न्यावें देवा ॥2॥
तुज आड कांहीं । बळ करी ऐसें नाहीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे हृषीकेशी । काय उशीर लाविसी ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Come, O Panduranga, come! Take me up in Your arms. Though I belong to You, I appear as a stranger. Untangle this knot and carry me away, O God. Nothing has the power to stand in Your way. Says Tuka, O Hrishikesha, why do You delay?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Come, O Panduranga, come. Lift me up into Your lap. Even though I belong to Your house, I look like a stranger here. Untangle this knot, O God; loosen me and carry me away. There is nothing strong enough to stand in Your way. Tuka says: O Hrishikesha, why do You take so long?
What it means
Tukaram calls God like a child reaching to be picked up. He insists he belongs to God's own household, yet finds himself wandering as if he were a foreigner, far from where he should be. He asks God to untie the knot that holds him and carry him home, reminding God that nothing has the power to block Him. The closing line presses the point with loving impatience: if no obstacle can stop You, then why the delay? The poem turns belonging into a claim, almost a demand, that grace not keep him waiting.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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