Longing, the child makes a scene
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय पोरें जालीं फार । किंवा न साहे करकर ॥1॥
ह्मणऊनि केली सांडी । घांस घेऊं न ल्हां तोंडीं ॥ध्रु.॥
करूं कलागती। तुज भांडणें भोंवतीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे टांचें । घरीं जालेंसे वरोचें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Have too many children been born, or can You no longer bear the noise? Is that why You have cast me off, refusing even to feed me? I will make a scene and quarrel all around You. Says Tuka, something seems to have gone wrong at home.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Have too many children been born to you? Or can you no longer bear the noise? Is that why you have cast me aside, not letting me take even a mouthful into my mouth? Then I will make a scene; I will quarrel and squabble all around you. Tuka says: something seems to have gone wrong at home.
What it means
Tukaram plays the neglected child to the hilt, teasing God with the suspicion that he has so many children now, or is so tired of the racket, that he has stopped feeding this one. The complaint is half mock-jealousy, half real hunger for God's attention. His response is not dignified silence but a deliberate tantrum: he will cling and quarrel and create a disturbance until God has to deal with him. The closing line keeps it playful, guessing that some trouble has broken out in God's household, while the real point is the devotee's refusal to be quietly ignored.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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