Longing, my breath cannot remain without You
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मातेविण बाळा । आणिक न माने सोहळा ॥1॥
तैसें जालें माझ्या चित्ता । तुजविण पंढरिनाथा ॥ध्रु.॥
वाट पाहेमेघा बिंदु । नेघे चातक सरिता सिंधू ॥2॥
सारसांसी निशीं । ध्यानरवीच्या प्रकाशीं ॥3॥
जीवनाविण मत्स्य । जैसें धेनूलागीं वत्स ॥4॥
पतिव्रते जिणें । भ्रताराच्या वर्त्तमानें ॥5॥
कृपणाचें धन । लोभालागीं जैसें मन ॥6॥
तुका ह्मणे काय । तुजविण प्राण राहे॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Without its mother, a child finds no joy in any celebration. That is exactly the state of my chitta without You, O Lord of Pandhari. The chataka bird watches for the rain-cloud and will not drink from river or sea. The chakravaka longs through the night for the light of the dawn-sun. A fish cannot live without water; a calf cannot rest without its mother cow. A devoted wife's life depends entirely on word of her husband. A miser's mind clings to its wealth with unshakable greed. Says Tuka, how can my breath remain without You?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Without its mother, a child finds no joy in any festival. So it is with my mind, O Lord of Pandhari, without You. The chataka bird watches only for the raincloud's drop and will not drink from river or sea. The sarasa birds wait through the night for the light of the dawn-sun. A fish cannot live out of water; a calf cannot rest apart from the cow. A devoted wife lives only on word of her husband. A miser's mind clings with greed to his wealth. Tuka says: how then can my breath stay in me without You?
What it means
Tukaram piles up images of beings that cannot be themselves without the one thing they are bound to. A child is joyless without its mother even amid celebration; the chataka bird refuses all water and waits only for rain from the cloud; the night birds long for dawn, the fish for water, the calf for the cow, the faithful wife for news of her husband, the miser for his hoard. Each is a kind of love that admits no substitute. He sets them all down only to ask the real question: if every one of these cannot live apart from what it loves, how can his own breath remain in his body without God?
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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