Longing, the deadlock of karma
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मज नाहीं धीर । तुह्मी न करा अंगीकार ॥1॥
ऐसें पडिलें विषम । बळी देवाहूनि कर्म ॥ध्रु.॥
चालों नेणें वाट । केल्या न पवा बोभाट ॥2॥
वेचों नेणे जीवें । तुका उदास धरिला देवें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have no patience, and You do not accept me. Such a dilemma has fallen upon me, where karma is mightier than God. I do not know the path, and crying out brings no help. Says Tuka, I cannot spend my life this way; God has kept me in indifference.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have no patience left. And You will not take me in. I am caught in a hard place: my karma is stronger than my God. I do not know the road. I cry out, and nothing comes. I do not know how to spend my own life. Tuka says: God has left me here, indifferent.
What it means
Tukaram lays out a deadlock and refuses to soften either side of it. He has run out of patience, yet God still has not accepted him, and he names the trap plainly: his own past deeds seem to outweigh God himself. He does not know the way, his cries draw no answer, and he cannot manage even the spending of his days. The pain in the poem is that God appears to stand back and leave him in this indifference, and Tukaram says so to God's face rather than pretending the longing has been met.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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