Longing, the call to come home
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोणा मुखें ऐसी ऐकेन मी मात । चाल तुज पंढरिनाथ बोलावितो ॥1॥
मग मी न धरीं आस मागील बोभाट । वेगीं धरिन वाट माहेराची ॥ध्रु.॥
निरांजिरें चित्त करितें तळमळ । केधवां देखती मूळ आलें डोळे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कई भाग्याची उजरी। होईल पंढरी देखावया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
From whose lips shall I hear the words: Come, the Lord of Pandhari calls you? Then I would abandon all past clamoring and swiftly take the road to my true home. My restless heart yearns ceaselessly; when will my eyes behold their source? Says Tuka, when will fortune shine so that I may see Pandhari?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
From whose mouth will I hear the words: Come, the Lord of Pandhari is calling you? Then I would drop all my old crying out and quickly take the road to my home. My empty heart burns and burns; when will my eyes see their source arrive? Tuka says: when will my fortune shine, so that I may see Pandhari?
What it means
Tukaram waits for one message and lives in the ache of not yet hearing it: word that Vitthal at Pandhari is calling him home. The moment that summons came, he would abandon every other complaint and run for the road. He calls Pandhari his maher, the true home a soul longs to return to, and his emptied heart burns for it. He frames it all as a question, not yet a homecoming, asking when his fortune will finally turn bright enough to let him see the place. The poem is pure longing held open, waiting on grace.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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