Longing, demanding one's due from God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
द्या जी माझा विचारोनियां विभाग । न खंडे हा लाग आहाचपणें ॥1॥
किती नेणों तुह्मां साहाते कटकट । आह्मी च वाईट निवडलों ते ॥ध्रु.॥
करवितां कल्हें जिवाचियेसाटीं । हे तुह्मां वोखटीं ढाळ देवा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे धीर कारण आपुला । तुह्मीं तों विठ्ठला मायातीत ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Give me my due portion after fair consideration. This persistent longing does not cease by itself. I do not know how long You can endure this pestering. Perhaps it is I alone who have been found wanting. You make me quarrel for my very life, yet You find such importuning distasteful, O God. Says Tuka, this patience serves Your own purpose, for You, O Vitthal, are beyond all illusion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Weigh it fairly and give me my share, Lord. This longing will not stop on its own; it will not be shaken off lightly. I do not know how long you can bear my pestering. Perhaps it is only I who have been judged worthless. You make me quarrel for the sake of my own life, and yet such begging is distasteful to you, O God. Tuka says: this patience serves your own purpose. You, Vitthal, are beyond all illusion.
What it means
Tukaram presses a claim on God and refuses to pretend the longing is bearable. He asks for his rightful portion, weighed out fairly, because the ache will not cease by itself. He even turns the discomfort on God: it is you who set me quarreling for my life, and you who find this begging unwelcome. But the last turn is trust, not accusation: he reads God's slowness as deliberate, a patience that serves God's own purpose, since Vitthal stands beyond the illusion that fools the rest. The poem holds complaint and faith together, demanding while still bowing.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →