Longing, why keep the stall open
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काशासाटीं बैसों करूनियां हाट । वाउगा बोभाट डांगोरा हा ॥1॥
काय आलें एका जिवाच्या उद्धारें । पावशी उच्चारें काय हो तें ॥ध्रु.॥
नेदी पट परी अन्नें तों न मरी । आपुलिये थोरीसाटीं राजा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां अव्हेरिलें तरी । मग कोण करी दुकान हा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why should I sit and set up this shop, making all this empty proclamation and fanfare? What does the salvation of one soul accomplish? Will You be reached merely by uttering words? A king may not give cloth, but he at least does not let anyone starve, for the sake of his own dignity. Says Tuka, if You now reject us, who will keep this stall open?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why should I sit here keeping a shop, making this empty noise and beating the drum? What does saving one soul gain You? Will You be reached just by speaking Your name aloud? A king may give no cloth, but at least he lets no one starve, for the sake of his own dignity. Tuka says: if You reject us now, then who will keep this stall open?
What it means
Tukaram challenges God with a merchant's image: his preaching and chanting are a shop, a noisy stall set up in the marketplace, and he asks what the point is if God stays distant. He presses the stakes by appealing to God's own honor: even a king who gives no gifts will not let his people starve, because their ruin would shame him. The implied argument is that God's reputation rests on caring for those who call on Him. The closing line lands the warning: if God rejects His devotees, the whole enterprise of devotion, the open stall, collapses, and the loss is God's own.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →