Lover's quarrel, scolding God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बरें आह्मां कळों आलें देवपण । आतां गुज कोण राखे तुझें ॥1॥
मारिलें कां मज सांग आजिवरी । आतां सरोबरी तुज मज ॥ध्रु.॥
जें आह्मी बोलों तें आहे तुझ्या अंगीं । देईन प्रसंगीं आजि शिव्या ॥2॥
निलाजिरा तुज नाहीं याति कुळ । चोरटा शिंदळ ठावा जना ॥3॥
खासी धोंडे माती जीव जंत झाडें । एकलें उघडें परदेसी ॥4॥
गाढव कुतरा ऐसा मज ठावा बईल तूं देवा भारवाही ॥5॥
लडिका तूं मागें बहुतांसी ठावा । आलें अनुभवा माझ्या तें ही ॥6॥
तुका ह्मणे मज खविळलें भांडा । आतां धीर तोंडा न धरवे ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have come to understand Your true nature well. Who will keep Your secret now? Tell me, why have You been striking me all this while? Now You and I are face to face. Whatever I say is found right in Your own character; today, if the occasion calls for it, I shall give You a scolding. You have no shame, no caste, no clan; the world knows You as a thief and a philanderer. You eat stones, mud, insects, and leaves; You wander alone and naked. I know You as one who carries loads like a donkey or a dog, O God. You have been mischievous from the beginning, and many know this. Says Tuka, my anger has been stirred; I can no longer hold my tongue.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have come to know Your godhood well. Who will keep Your secret now? Tell me, why have You been beating me all this time? Now You and I stand face to face. Whatever I say is already there in Your own conduct; today, if the moment calls for it, I will scold You. You have no shame, no caste, no clan. The world knows You as a thief and a seducer. You eat stones, mud, insects, leaves. You wander alone and bare. I know You as one who hauls loads like a donkey or a dog, O God. You have been mischievous from the start, and many know it. It has come into my own experience too. Tuka says: my temper is roused, you brawler; now my tongue will not stay still.
What it means
This is a quarrel between lovers, not blasphemy: Tukaram dares to scold God precisely because the bond is close enough to bear it. He throws back at Krishna the very stories the tradition tells, the butter thief, the charmer of the gopis, the one with no caste or clan, who in his avatars ate dirt as a child and bore burdens for his devotees. Every insult is secretly a list of God's intimacy with the lowly and the ordinary. The heat is real but safe; the point is that a devotee who has truly come to know God can speak to him without ceremony or fear.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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