Pilgrims departing, grief of separation
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
होईल निरोप घेतला यावरी । राउळाभीतरीं जाऊनियां॥1॥
करूनियां दधिमंगळभोजन । प्रयाण शकुनसुमुहूर्तें॥ध्रु.॥
होतील दाटले सद्गदित कंठीं । भरतें या पोटीं वियोगाचें ॥2॥
येरयेरां भेटी क्षेम आलिंगनें । केलीं समाधान होतीं संतीं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे चाली न साहे मनास । पाहाती कळस परपरतों ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When the message is received, the saints will go into the temple to take their leave. After the auspicious meal, they will set out at a blessed moment. Their throats will choke with emotion; the grief of separation wells up within them. They will embrace one another, exchanging greetings and farewells, and the saints will console each other. Says Tuka, the departure is hard on the chitta; they look back again and again at the temple spire.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When the message comes, the saints will go into the temple to take their leave. They will eat the auspicious meal of curds and set out at a blessed hour. Their throats will choke; the grief of parting wells up inside them. They will embrace one another, give their greetings and farewells, and console each other. Tuka says: the going is hard on the mind. They look back at the temple spire again and again.
What it means
Tukaram is picturing the Varkaris leaving Pandhari at the end of the pilgrimage, and he is naming the cost of every parting from the place where God is met. The ritual is exact: word arrives, leave is taken in the temple, the blessed meal is eaten, the auspicious hour chosen. But under the order is grief; the throats choke and the pilgrims keep turning to look at the spire as long as it stays in sight. He lets the leaving stand for the soul's reluctance to walk away from the presence it has tasted. The mind cannot bear the step that carries it away.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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