Lover's quarrel, God's evasions
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मी भांडों तुजसवें । वर्मी धरूं जालें ठावें ॥1॥
होसी सरड बेडुक । बाग गांढएा ही पाईक ॥ध्रु.॥
बळ करी तया भ्यावें । पळों लागे तया घ्यावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दूर परता । नर नारी ना तूं भूता ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We shall quarrel with You; we have grasped Your weak spots. You become a lizard, a frog, a garden snake, and every other crawling thing. One must fear those who use force; one must seize those who flee. Says Tuka, You stand apart; You are neither man, nor woman, nor spirit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We will quarrel with You. We have found Your weak spots. You turn into a lizard, a frog, a garden snake, every crawling thing. One has to fear the one who uses force. One has to seize the one who runs away. Tuka says: You stand far off. You are not man, not woman, not a spirit.
What it means
Tukaram keeps up the playful fight, claiming he has learned how God slips away. The shifting shapes, lizard, frog, snake, name God's endless evasions and disguises whenever the devotee tries to pin him down. The middle line states the rule of the chase: power must be feared, but a runaway must be grabbed and held. The closing line is the real point under the teasing: God cannot finally be caught by any category at all, being neither man nor woman nor ghost, which is why the lover must hold on rather than define.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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