Reckoning, the debt God must settle
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
रिण वैर हत्या । हें तों न सुटे नेंदितां ॥1॥
हें कां नेणां पांडुरंगा । तुह्मी सांगतसां जगा ॥ध्रु.॥
माझा संबंध तो किती। चुकवा लोकाची फजिती ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे या चि साठीं । मज न घेतां नये तुटी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Debt, enmity, and bloodshed: these do not end without being discharged. You know this well, O Panduranga; You Yourself teach it to the world. My claim upon You is clear enough. Clear it and spare me the shame before the world. Says Tuka, this is precisely why there can be no severance without Your taking me in.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Debt, enmity, bloodshed: these do not end until they are discharged. Do you not know this, O Panduranga? You yourself teach it to the world. How large is my claim on you? Settle it, and spare me the shame before the world. Tuka says: this is the very reason there can be no parting until you take me in.
What it means
Tukaram presses a legal and moral argument onto God: certain debts, like enmity and bloodshed, cannot simply be waved away; they must be settled before they release you. He reminds Panduranga that this is God's own teaching to the world, so God cannot pretend not to know it. He casts his bond with God as just such an outstanding account and asks God to clear it and spare him public disgrace. The conclusion turns the logic into a claim on grace: because the debt is real and unsettled, God is not free to part from him until God has taken him fully in. The harshness points at the devotee's own insistence that God honor the relationship he has staked his life on.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →