Longing, shamed by the saints who were answered
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां गा किविलवाणा केलों दीनाचा दीन । काय तुझी हीन शक्ति जालीसी दिसे ॥1॥
लाज येते मना तुझा ह्मणवितां दास । गोडी नाहीं रस बोलिली यासारिखी ॥ध्रु.॥
लाजविलीं मागें संतांची हीं उत्तरें । कळों येतें खरें दुजें एकावरूनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझी कोणें वदविली वाणी । प्रसादावांचूनि तुमचिया विठ्ठला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why have You made me so pitiable, the lowliest of the low? Has Your power itself grown less? Shame comes to my mind when I call myself Your servant. There is no sweetness, no flavor, in words such as these. Before me the replies of the saints have been put to shame. By one thing, the truth of another becomes clear. Says Tuka, who has made my tongue speak? None but Your grace, O Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why have you made me so pitiable, the lowest of the low? Has your own power somehow grown weak? Shame comes to my mind when I call myself your servant. There is no sweetness, no flavor, in words like these. The answers you gave the saints before me are now put to shame. By one case the truth of another becomes clear. Tuka says: who has made my tongue speak at all? Nothing but your grace, O Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram presses God with a sharp argument from his own track record. God answered the earlier saints, so to leave Tukaram in misery makes those past rescues look unreliable, as if God's power had run out. He feels the shame of calling himself a servant of a master who does not act, and finds no sweetness in such an empty title. The logic is pointed: one unanswered case throws doubt on every answered one, so God's reputation is at stake. Yet the protest folds back into humility at the end, as Tukaram admits even his voice and complaint are themselves gifts of God's grace, leaving the appeal squarely with Vitthal.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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