Reproach, the debtors at God's door
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
या चि हाका तुझे द्वारीं । सदा देखों रिणकरी ॥1॥
सदा करिसी खंड दंड । देवा बहु गा तूं लंड ॥ध्रु.॥
सुखें गोविसी भोजना । लपवूनियां आपणां ॥2॥
एकें एक बुझाविसी । तुका ह्मणे ठक होसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
At Your door I see only debtors, calling out again and again. You always impose cuts and penalties. O God, what a thorough scoundrel You are. You lure with the promise of a feast, all while hiding Yourself away. You put one off, then the next. Says Tuka, You are a cheat through and through.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
At your door I see only debtors, calling out again and again. You are always cutting and fining what is owed. O God, what a thorough rogue you are. You lure people with the promise of a feast, all while hiding yourself away. You put one off, then the next. Tuka says: you are a cheat through and through.
What it means
Tukaram piles up scolding names for God, picturing Vitthal's door crowded with debtors who keep crying out and never get paid in full. God, he says, behaves like a hard moneylender who docks and penalizes every claim, dangles the promise of a feast, and then keeps himself out of sight. The complaint is a lover's, not an unbeliever's: only someone certain God is real and worth waiting on would protest this loudly at being kept waiting. Aimed inward, it exposes the bargaining mind that comes to God as a creditor expecting payout, and meets instead a God who will not be reduced to a transaction.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →