Aggrieved love, the honor never sought
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं मागितला । तुह्मां मान म्यां विठ्ठला ॥1॥
जे हे करविली फजिती । माझी एवढी जना हातीं ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं केला पोट । पुढें घालूनि बोभाट ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे धरूनि हात । नाहीं नेले दिवानांत ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I never asked You for any honor, O Vitthal. Yet what humiliation You have brought upon me, placing me in the hands of the people. I never made a public uproar, throwing myself before You with my complaints. Says Tuka, I never took You by the hand and hauled You into court.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I never asked you for any honor, O Vitthal. Yet look at the humiliation you have brought on me, handing me over into the hands of the people. I never made a public uproar, throwing myself before you with my complaints. Tuka says: I never took you by the hand and dragged you into court.
What it means
Tukaram protests that whatever exposure and shame he now suffers, he never went looking for it. He asked God for no honor and no status, yet finds himself delivered into the hands of the crowd, made a public spectacle. He insists he behaved with restraint throughout: he did not throw a loud scene before God, did not seize God by the hand and haul him before a court to force a judgment. The grievance is the wounded protest of a devotee who feels mishandled by the very God he trusted, and it quietly turns the listener toward examining how much of our own exposure we blame on God while claiming clean hands ourselves.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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