Longing, no evidence of the cure
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मज ऐसें कोण उद्धरिलें सांगा । ब्रीदें पांडुरंगा बोलतसां ॥1॥
हातींच्या कांकणां कायसा आरिसा । उरलों मी जैसा तैसा आहें ॥ध्रु.॥
धनमंत्री हरी रोग्याचिये वेथे । तें तों कांहीं येथें न देखिजे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं अनुभव अंगें । वचन वाउगें कोण मानी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Tell me, O Panduranga, who else like me have You ever truly saved? You speak grand promises, yet a mirror is not needed to see the bangles on one's own wrist; I remain just as I was. You are called the physician of Hari, the healer of the sick, yet I see no evidence of that cure here. Says Tuka, without personal experience, who will believe empty words?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Tell me, who like me have You ever lifted up? You go about reciting Your grand titles, O Panduranga. I need no mirror to see the bangles on my own wrist: I am still exactly what I was. They call You Hari, the rich physician who heals the sick, but I see no sign of that healing here. Tuka says: with no experience in my own body, who believes mere words?
What it means
Tukaram is complaining that God's famous titles have not been proved in his own case. God is celebrated as the one who rescues the lost and as the physician who cures the diseased, yet Tukaram looks at himself and finds no change, as plainly as a person sees the bangles already on their own wrist. The titles stay words while the man stays unhealed. His demand is for living proof: he will not be satisfied by reputation alone, because without an experience in his own being, the grand claims are empty to him.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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