Challenge, the Lord who must save
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं तरी मज काय होती चाड । धरावया भीड तुज चित्तीं ॥1॥
आह्मां न तारावें तुह्मी काय करावें । सांगीजोजी भावें नारायणा ॥ध्रु.॥
अन्याय एकाचा अंगीकार करणें। तया हातीं देणें लाज ते चि ।
काय ते शूरत्व मिरवूनि बोलणें । जनामाजी दावणें बळरया ॥2॥
पोहएा अन्नछत्र घालूनियां घरीं । दंडितो बाहेरी आलियासी ।
नव्हे कीर्त कांहीं न माने लोकां । काय विटंबणा तैसी ॥3॥
प्रत्यक्षासी काय द्यावें हें प्रमाण । पाहातां दर्पण साक्ष काई ।
तुका ह्मणे तरी आह्मां का न कळे । तरलों किंवा आह्मी नाहीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If You will not save me, what reason would I have to hold You in my chitta? If You will not ferry us across, what purpose do You serve? Tell me plainly, O Narayana. To take the side of one and accept his wrongs, and then to hand him the same old shame: what kind of valor is it merely to boast and show off strength before the crowd? One opens a charity kitchen at home and then beats away the very ones who arrive at the door. This is no glory; the people will not accept it. What more proof can one give when the truth stands in plain sight? A mirror needs no further witness. Says Tuka, do we not know, then, whether we have been saved or not?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If You will not save me, why would I hold You in my heart at all? If You will not carry us across, what use are You? Tell me plainly, O Narayana. To take someone's side, accept his faults, and then hand him the same old shame: what kind of courage is that, just boasting and showing off strength before the crowd? A man opens a free kitchen at his house and then beats away the very ones who come to the door. That is no glory; people will not accept it. What proof is needed when the truth is in plain sight? A mirror needs no other witness. Tuka says: do we not know, then, whether we have been saved or not?
What it means
Tukaram presses God with a blunt argument: a savior who does not save is no savior, and there is no reason to keep him in the heart. He uses two stinging images of false generosity. One who takes your side only to shame you again is merely posturing for the crowd, and one who runs a charity kitchen yet drives away the hungry shames himself, not them. The mirror line says the failure is self-evident; no further testimony is needed than what anyone can see. The closing question turns the demand into something the devotee can already read for himself: whether he has truly been ferried across is plain, and God's refusal to act would show plainly too.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →