Complaint, the servant who still suffers
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
विष्णुदासां भोग । जरी आह्मां पीडी रोग ॥1॥
तरि हें दिसे लाजिरवाणें । काय तुह्मांसी सांगणें ॥ध्रु.॥
आह्मां काळें खावें । बोलिलें तें वांयां जावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दास । आह्मी भोगूं गर्भवास ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If we who call ourselves servants of Vishnu are still afflicted by disease, then this is truly embarrassing. What need is there to tell You? If we must eat filth and our words go to waste, if we who claim to be Your servants must still endure the womb, then says Tuka, something is deeply amiss.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If we who are servants of Vishnu are still struck down by disease, then it looks shameful. What is there to say to You? If we must eat what is dark and bitter, then all that was spoken goes to waste. Tuka says: we are Your servants, and yet we go on suffering the womb of rebirth.
What it means
Tukaram lodges a frank, almost reproachful complaint with God on behalf of His own devotees. If those who call themselves servants of Vishnu still fall sick, suffer hard portions, and keep being thrown back into the cycle of birth, then it makes both servant and master look bad. He is not doubting God so much as holding Him to His word: the promises made to devotees seem to go to waste if their lives differ so little from anyone else's. The stakes are the honor of the relationship itself; a servant's suffering reflects on the Lord he serves, and Tukaram is daring to say so out loud.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →