Longing, where has God gone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मां गांजी जन । तरि कां मेला नारायण ॥1॥
जालों पोरटीं निढळें । नाहीं ठाव बुड आळें ॥ध्रु.॥
आह्मीं जना भ्यावें। तरि कां न लाजिजे देवें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देश । जाला देवाविण ओस ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If the world oppresses us, is Narayana then dead? We have been left orphaned and exposed, without a roof or a shelter. If we must fear the people, should God not feel ashamed? Says Tuka, without God this whole land has become a wasteland.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If the world crushes us, is Narayana then dead? We are left orphaned and bare, with no roof, no shelter. If we have to be afraid of people, should God not be ashamed of that? Tuka says: without God, this whole land has gone to waste.
What it means
Tukaram cries out from a place of feeling abandoned, and he aims the complaint straight at God. If the world is allowed to grind down God's own people, he asks, has God simply died and left them orphaned and exposed. The sharpest line turns the shame back on God: if the devotee is reduced to fearing other people, that reflects on the protector who let it happen. The closing image is bleak and total, a whole land turned to wasteland, because to Tukaram a world without God present is no longer fit to live in.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →