Longing, the children threaten the hoarding father
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जोडी कोणांसाटीं । एवढी करितोसी आटी ॥1॥
जरी हें आह्मां नाहीं सुख । रडों पोरें पोटीं भूक ॥ध्रु.॥
करूनि जतन। कोणा देसील हें धन ॥2॥
आमचे तळमळे । तुझें होईल वाटोळें ॥3॥
घेसील हा श्राप । माझा होऊनियां बाप ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे उरी । आतां न ठेवीं यावरी ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
For whom do You labor so tirelessly? If we, Your own children, have no share of this happiness, we shall weep with hunger in our bellies. After guarding this wealth so carefully, to whom will You give it? If we suffer while You hoard, it will be Your own ruin. You will bear this curse, having become our father. Says Tuka, I will hold nothing back now.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
For whom do you toil so hard? If we, your own children, get no share of this happiness, we will cry with the hunger in our bellies. After guarding all this wealth so carefully, to whom will you give it? If we waste away while you hoard, it will be your own ruin. You will carry this curse, you who became my father. Tuka says: I will hold nothing back now.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as a starving child confronting a hoarding father. He asks who all this labor is for, if the children whose right it is are left with nothing but hunger. The threat is sharp: a father who lets his own children waste away brings ruin and a curse upon himself, and that responsibility is God's precisely because he took the place of father. There is real audacity here, love pressed to the point of accusation. Tuka says he will no longer keep anything back, meaning he will say it all to God's face.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →