Longing, no reply from God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय जालें नेणों माझिया कपाळा । न देखीजे डोळां मूळ येतां ॥1॥
बहु दिस पाहें वचनासी वास । धरिलें उदास पांडुरंगा ॥ध्रु.॥
नाहीं निरोपाचें पावलें उत्तर । ऐसें तों निष्ठ न पाहिजे ॥2॥
पडिला विसर किंवा कांहीं धंदा । त्याहूनि गोविंदा जरूरसा ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे आलें वेचाचें सांकडें । देणें घेणें पुढें तो ही धाक ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I do not know what is written on my forehead, for my eyes cannot see Your coming. For many days I have awaited Your word, and You have kept Your distance, O Panduranga. No reply to my message has arrived; such cruelty should not be shown. Perhaps You have forgotten, or perhaps You are occupied; even so, O Govinda, this is urgent. Says Tuka, perhaps resources are scarce, and the fear of further debts weighs upon You too.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I do not know what is written on my forehead, for my eyes cannot see you coming. For many days I have waited for your word, and you have kept your distance, O Panduranga. No answer to my message has reached me. Such hardness should not be shown. Perhaps you have forgotten me, or perhaps you are busy; even so, Govinda, this is urgent. Tuka says: perhaps your means have run short, and the fear of further debt weighs on you too.
What it means
This continues the letter to God, now sharpened by silence: Tukaram has waited many days and received no reply, and he names that silence as a hardness God should not show to one who depends on him. He runs through the excuses a child invents for an absent parent, that God forgot, that God is busy, and insists none of them excuse the delay because his need is urgent. The last verse turns gently teasing and self-aware, imagining that maybe God himself is short of resources and afraid of owing more. The satire points not at God but at how the longing soul keeps inventing reasons rather than accept abandonment.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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