Longing, the soul as captive bride
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कामें नेलें चित्त नेदी अवलोकुं मुख । बहु वाटे दुःख फुटों पाहे हृदय ॥1॥
कां जी सासुरवासी मज केलें भगवंता । आपुलिया सत्ता स्वाधीनता ते नाहीं ॥ध्रु.॥
प्रभातेसि वाटे तुमच्या यावें दर्शना । येथें न चले चोरी उरली राहे वासना ॥2॥
येथें अवघे वांयां गेले दिसती सायास । तुका ह्मणे नास दिसे जाल्या वेचाचा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Desire has stolen my chitta and will not let me gaze upon Your face. Great sorrow wells up. The heart is ready to burst. Why, O Lord, have You made me into this bride at the in-laws' house, where I have no freedom, no sovereignty of my own? At dawn I long to come for Your darshan, but no stealth works here. The desire lingers and remains. All my labors here appear to have gone to waste. Says Tuka, the ruin of everything spent is plain to see.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Desire has carried off my chitta and will not let me look upon Your face. Great sorrow rises in me. My heart is ready to burst. Why, O Lord, have You made me a bride sent to her in-laws, where I have no freedom and no power of my own? At dawn I long to come for Your darshan, but no stealth works here. The desire stays and will not leave. Here all my labors seem to have gone to waste. Tuka says: I can plainly see the ruin of everything I spent.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as a young bride trapped in her in-laws' house, a figure for the soul bound to worldly life with no freedom of its own. Desire has stolen his attention and keeps him from even seeing God's face, and the ache is so sharp the heart could burst. He longs at dawn for darshan, but there is no way to slip free; the craving simply stays. The poem lands on the loss: all his effort feels wasted, and he can see plainly that what he spent has come to ruin, which is itself the cry that turns the soul back toward God.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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