Longing, watching the road
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आरोनियां पाहे वाट । कटकट सोसेना ॥1॥
आलियांस पुसें मात । तेथें चित्त लागलें ॥ध्रु.॥
दळीं कांडीं लोकांऐसें । परि मी नसें ते ठायीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे येथें पिसें । तेथें तैसें असेल ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I climb up and gaze at the road; I can bear the anguish of waiting no longer. I ask every passerby for news; my chitta is fixed on that destination. I grind and pound grain like everyone else, yet I am not truly here. Says Tuka, I may look mad in this place, but the same must be true of my longing there.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I climb up and watch the road. I can no longer bear the strain of waiting. I ask everyone who comes by for news; my mind is fixed on that place. I grind and pound the grain like everyone else, yet I am not really here. Tuka says: I must look mad in this place. But there it must be the same; my longing belongs there.
What it means
Tukaram describes a soul stretched between two worlds while it waits for God. Outwardly he does the ordinary labor of the household, grinding and pounding grain like anyone else, but his attention has already left for the destination he watches the road for. He questions every passerby for news, unable to stand the waiting. He admits he looks mad here, and accepts it: the madness is only that his whole heart has gone ahead to where it belongs.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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