Longing, aching for the sight of God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कीर्तन ऐकावया भुलले श्रवण । श्रीमुख लोचन देखावया ॥1॥
उदित हें भाग्य होईल कोणे काळीं । चित्त तळमळी ह्मणऊनि ॥ध्रु.॥
उतावीळ बाहएा भेटिलागीं दंड । लोटांगणीं धड जावयासी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माथा ठेवीन चरणीं । होतील पारणी इंिद्रयांची ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My ears are entranced, longing to hear kirtan. My eyes yearn to behold His holy face. When will such fortunate time arise? My chitta aches with this longing. My arms are eager to embrace Him; my body yearns to prostrate itself before Him in full surrender. Says Tuka, I shall place my head at His feet, and the hunger of all my senses will be satisfied.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My ears are spellbound, longing to hear the kirtan. My eyes ache to see his holy face. When will this good fortune come? My mind keeps churning with the wait. My arms are restless to embrace him; my whole body strains to fall down before him. Tuka says: I will lay my head at his feet, and then the hunger of all my senses will be fed.
What it means
Tukaram describes a longing that has taken hold of every sense at once. His ears hunger for kirtan, his eyes for God's face, his arms to embrace, his body to prostrate. The ache is not vague; it is a restless waiting, asking when the fortune of meeting will finally dawn. He pictures the moment of relief as laying his head at God's feet, and only then are the senses, which until now have starved, at last satisfied. The poem makes the body itself the instrument of devotion, every limb leaning toward God.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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