Longing, asking everyone for God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पुसावेंसें हें चि वाटे । जें जें भेटे तयासी ॥1॥
देव कृपा करील मज । काय लाज राखील ॥ध्रु.॥
अवघियांचा विसर जाला। हा राहिला उदेग ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चिंता वाटे । कोण भेटे सांगेसें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I feel the urge to ask everyone I meet: will God show me His grace? Will He guard my honor? All other concerns have been forgotten; only this restless yearning remains. Says Tuka, worry fills me. Who is there that I might meet and ask?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I feel I must ask this of everyone I meet: will God show me His grace? Will He guard my honor? I have forgotten every other concern; only this restless yearning is left. Tuka says: worry fills me. Who is there I can meet and ask?
What it means
Tukaram is in the grip of a single longing and lets it show without dressing it up. The one question he wants to put to everyone he meets is whether God will be gracious to him and keep his honor safe. That ache has crowded out every other concern in his life, leaving only the restlessness of waiting. The poem ends on the loneliness of such longing: he is full of worry and cannot find anyone who can answer the only question that matters to him.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →