Longing, only the sight of the feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
लोकमान देहसुख । संपित्तउपभोग अनेक । विटंबना दुःख । तुझिये भेटीवांचूनि ॥1॥
तरी मज ये भेट ये भेट । काय ठाकलासी नीट । थोर पुण्यें वीट । तुज दैवें चि लाधली ॥ध्रु.॥
काय ब्रह्मज्ञान करूं कोरडें । रितें मावेचें मापाडें । भेटीविण कुडें । तुझिये अवघें मज वाटे ॥2॥ आत्मिस्थतीचा विचार । काय करूं हा उद्धार। न देखतां धीर । चतुर्भुज मज नाहीं ।3॥
रिद्धीसिद्धी काय करूं । अथवा अगम्य विचारू । भेटीविण भारु । तुझिये वाटे मज यांचा ॥4॥
तुजवांचूनि कांहीं व्हावें । ऐसें नको माझिया जीवें। तुका ह्मणे द्यावें । दरुषण पायांचें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Worldly honor, bodily comfort, wealth, and countless pleasures are all torment and misery without meeting You. So grant me this meeting, grant me this meeting. Why do You stand so firmly apart? Only by great merit has the brick of Pandhari been obtained by sheer fortune. What use is dry knowledge of Brahman, an empty measure of mere appearance? Without meeting You, everything feels hollow to me. What good is pondering the state of the Self as a means of liberation when I have no patience without seeing Your four-armed form? What shall I do with supernatural powers or unfathomable philosophy? Without meeting You, they are all a burden. Says Tuka, let nothing happen to me apart from You; just grant me the sight of Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Worldly honor, bodily comfort, wealth, the many pleasures: without meeting You they are all torment and grief. So grant me this meeting, grant me this meeting. Why do You stand so firmly apart? Only by great merit, by sheer good fortune, has the brick of Pandhari been won. What use is dry knowledge of Brahman, an empty measure of mere appearance? Without meeting You, all of it feels hollow to me. Why should I ponder the state of the Self as a way to be saved, when I have no patience without seeing Your four-armed form? What shall I do with miraculous powers, or with unfathomable philosophy? Without meeting You they are only a burden. Tuka says: let nothing come to me apart from You; just grant me the sight of Your feet.
What it means
Tukaram lays the whole ladder of human goods at God's feet and calls every rung worthless without the meeting itself. Honor, comfort, and wealth are named as torment; even the high paths, dry knowledge of Brahman, inquiry into the Self, occult powers, deep philosophy, are weighed and refused as empty or as dead weight. He is not condemning these things in themselves; he is saying that liberation pursued as a technique is hollow to a heart that wants the person, not the prize. What he asks for is small and total at once: the simple sight of Vitthal's feet on the brick at Pandhari, which he counts as won by pure grace, not by his own merit.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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