God's longing for the devotee
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काकुलती येतो हरी । क्षणभरी निवडितां ॥१॥
तुमची मज लागली सवे । ठायींचे नवे नव्हों गडी ॥ध्रु.॥
आणीक बोलाविती फार । बहु थोर नावडती ॥२॥
भाविकें त्यांची आवडी मोठी । तुका म्हणे मिठी घाली जिवें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Hari pleads with folded hands, unable to bear even a moment of separation. I have grown so accustomed to your company; I am not a new friend who just arrived. Many great ones call to me, but I do not find them appealing. Says Tuka, so deep is his love for the devoted ones that he clings to them with his very life.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Hari pleads with folded hands; he cannot bear even a moment apart. I have grown used to your company. I am not some new friend who just arrived. Many great ones call to me, but I do not care for them. Tuka says: so deep is his love for the devoted ones that he clings to them with his very life.
What it means
Here Tukaram turns the picture around: it is God, not the devotee, who is the desperate lover. Hari begs with folded hands and will not endure a moment of separation, reminding the devotee that theirs is no new acquaintance. The radical claim is in the middle: the great and powerful call to God and he is unmoved, but to the one who simply loves him he clings as if his own life depended on it. The point is that devotion, not greatness, is what binds the Lord; he holds on harder than the devotee does.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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