Longing, the haunted house of devotion
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भूतबाधा आह्मां घरीं । हें तों आश्चर्य गा हरी ॥1॥
जाला भक्तीचा कळस । आले वस्तीस दोष ॥ध्रु.॥
जागरणाचें फळ । दिली जोडोनि तळमळ ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । आहाच कळों आली सेवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
That evil spirits should haunt our home is truly astonishing, O Hari. Devotion has reached its pinnacle, yet faults have come to dwell with us. The fruit of our vigil has been nothing but anguish and torment. Says Tuka, O God, such is the service we have come to know.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Evil spirits haunt our home. This is a strange thing, O Hari. Devotion has reached its highest point, yet faults have come to live with us. The fruit of our long vigil is only anguish, given to us folded together. Tuka says: O God, the service we have come to know is hollow.
What it means
Tukaram is crying out in bewilderment to Hari. He has carried devotion to its peak and kept long vigils, yet what has come to dwell with him is not peace but torment, faults and a haunting that should have no place near such bhakti. He says this is astonishing, and the strangeness itself is the complaint: the reward of his service feels empty and the fruit handed back to him is anguish. The verse holds the ache of the devotee who has given everything and finds God still withheld.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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