Longing, show me the small form
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मीं जाणावें तें काई तुझें वर्म कोणे ठायीं । अंतपार नाहीं ऐसें श्रुति बोलती ॥1॥
होई मज तैसा मज तैसा साना सकुमार रुषीकेशा । पुरवीं माझी आशा भुजा चारी दाखवीं॥ध्रु.॥
खालता सप्त ही पाताळा वरता स्वर्गाहूनि ढिसाळा । तो मी मस्यक डोळां कैसा पाहों आपला ॥2॥
मज असे हा भरवसा पढीयें वोसी तयां तैसा । पंढरीनिवासा तुका ह्मणे गा विठोबा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How can I know Your secret, and where does it reside? The scriptures themselves declare You are without end or limit. Then become for me small and tender, O Hrishikesha; show me Your four-armed form and fulfill my longing. You extend below the seven nether worlds and tower beyond the heavens. How then can I behold You with these small eyes? I have this faith that You become whatever Your devotee needs. Says Tuka, O Vithoba, dweller of Pandhari, I trust in this.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How am I to know Your secret, and where does it lie? The scriptures themselves say You are without end or limit. So become small and tender for me, O Hrishikesha. Show me Your four-armed form and fulfill my longing. You reach below the seven nether worlds and rise above the heavens. How then can I see You with these small eyes? I hold this faith: You become whatever Your devotee needs. Tuka says: O Vithoba, dweller of Pandhari, I trust in this.
What it means
Tukaram admits a real difficulty and answers it with faith. The scriptures call God endless and limitless, so there is no secret he could grasp and no place he could locate Him. A being that stretches below all the nether worlds and above all the heavens cannot be taken in by small human eyes. So instead of straining toward the infinite, he asks God to come down to his scale, to be small and tender, to show the four-armed form a devotee can actually behold. The ground under the request is the conviction that God shapes Himself to whatever the devotee needs, and on that trust he rests at Vithoba's Pandhari.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →