Longing, eyes hungry for the form
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सकिळकांचें समाधान । नव्हे देखिल्यावांचून ॥1॥
रूप दाखवीं रे आतां । सहजरभुजांच्या मंडिता ॥ध्रु.॥
शंखचक्रपद्मगदा। गरुडासहित ये गोविंदा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कान्हा । भूक लागली नयनां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The satisfaction of all will not come without beholding your form. Show me your form now, adorned with four arms. Come with conch, discus, lotus, and mace, O Govinda, and bring Garuda along with you. Says Tuka, O Krishna, my eyes are hungry for your sight.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
No one is content without beholding you. Show me your form now, you who are adorned with four arms. Come with conch, discus, lotus, and mace, O Govinda, and bring Garuda with you. Tuka says: O Krishna, my eyes are hungry for your sight.
What it means
Here the craving is for darshan, the actual seeing of God, without which Tukaram says no one's heart can settle. He asks not for a vague presence but for the full, recognizable form: four arms bearing conch, discus, lotus, and mace, and Garuda alongside, the very figure of Govinda enthroned in devotion. The longing is located in the senses; he says his eyes themselves are hungry. The prayer insists that for the devotee, intellectual knowledge of God is not enough, and only the seen form will feed the ache.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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