Longing, death as sweet threshold
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कब मरूं पाऊं चरन तुम्हारे । ठाकुर मेरे जीवन प्यारे ॥1॥
जग रडे ज्याकुं सो मोहि मीठा । मीठा दर आनंदमाहि पैठा ॥ध्रु.॥
भला पाऊं जनम इन्हे बेर । बस मायाके असंग फेर ॥2॥
कहे तुका धन मानहि दारा । वोहिलिये गुंडलीयें पसारा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When shall I die and find Your feet, O my Lord, my dearest life? The death the world weeps over is sweet to me; that death is a sweet threshold into joy beyond. Well have I received this birth, this one time. Enough of this entanglement with maya and its rounds. Says Tuka, wealth, pride, and family: all of this is a bundle of baggage to be left behind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When shall I die and reach your feet, O my Lord, my dearest life? The death the world weeps over is sweet to me; that death is a sweet door into joy beyond. Well have I received this birth, this one time. Enough of this entanglement with maya and its rounds. Tuka says: wealth, pride, and family are all a bundle of baggage to be left behind.
What it means
Tukaram turns the common fear of death on its head and longs for it, because to him death is the moment of reaching God's feet. What the world mourns over is sweet to him; he calls it a doorway into a joy past anything here. He treats this human birth as the precious chance to finish with the endless turning of maya rather than to extend it. In the close he names what he is glad to drop at that door: wealth, pride, and family, all of it mere baggage. The claim is bold, that union with the Lord is worth more than the life everyone else clings to.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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