Longing, God is dead to me
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझे लेखीं देव मेला । असो त्याला असेल ॥1॥
गोष्टी न करी नांव नेघें । गेलों दोघें खंडोनी ॥ध्रु.॥
स्तुतिसमवेत निंदा । केला धंदा उदंड ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे निवांत ठेलों । वेचित आलों जीवित्व ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In my reckoning, God has died. Let Him be whatever He may be. I will not speak of Him, I will not take His name; both of us have parted ways and broken off. Along with praise, slander was dealt out abundantly. Says Tuka, I have become still and quiet, having spent the currency of my entire life.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In my reckoning, God has died. Let Him be whatever He may be. I tell no stories of Him, I do not take His name; the two of us have broken off and parted. Praise and slander both, I dealt out plenty of that trade. Tuka says: I have gone quiet, having spent away my whole life.
What it means
This is Tukaram speaking from the dry, severed side of longing, and the words are deliberately stark. He declares that as far as he is concerned God is dead, and lets Him be whatever He will; he will not tell the old stories or even take the Name, because the two of them have broken apart. He looks back on all his loud devotional business, the praising and the blaming alike, and counts it as so much trade he carried on at length. Now he has fallen silent, his whole life spent like coin paid out. The harshness is the cry of one who feels abandoned, not a rejection of God, and the silence is where it leaves him.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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