Longing, weaned from the world
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नावडे जें चित्ता । तें चि होसी पुरविता ॥1॥
कां रे पुरविली पाठी । माझी केली जीवेसाटीं ॥ध्रु.॥
न करावा संग । वाटे दुरावावें जग ॥2॥
सेवावा एकांत । वाटे न बोलावी मात ॥3॥
जन धन तन । वाटे लेखावें वमन ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे सत्ता । हातीं तुझ्या पंढरिनाथा ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What my chitta does not want, that is precisely what You keep providing. Why have You persisted in this, making my life miserable? I wish for no company; I wish to withdraw from the world. I want to dwell in solitude and speak no word. Body, wealth, and people all seem repulsive to me. Says Tuka, the power is in Your hands, O Lord of Pandhari.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever my mind does not want, that is the very thing you keep handing me. Why have you stayed on my back like this and made my life a torment? I want no company; the world feels like something to move away from. I want to keep to solitude and speak no word at all. People, wealth, the body itself: all of it I feel I should count as vomit. Tuka says: the power is in your hands, Lord of Pandhari.
What it means
Tukaram is describing a turn in his own heart that he traces back to God's doing. The things the world calls good, company, wealth, the body, have become repulsive to him, and he is not gentle about it: he would reckon them as vomit, something the body has already thrown out. He half-complains that God keeps supplying exactly what he no longer wants, as if pursuing him to wear him down. The last line surrenders the complaint: if this estrangement from the world is happening, the control over it lies in God's hands, not his own.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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