Longing, pleading with the silent Lord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निदनयासी तुह्मी करितां दंडण । तुमचें गाहाणें कोठें द्यावें ॥1॥
भाकितों करुणा ऐकती कान ।उगलें चि मौन्य धरिलें ऐसें ॥ध्रु.॥
दीनपणें पाहें पाय भिडावोनि । मंजुळा वचनीं विनवीतसें॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे गांठी मनाची उकला । काय जी विठ्ठला पाहातसां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You punish the innocent, and to whom shall I take my complaint against You? I cry out for mercy; my ears hear, but You maintain a stony silence. I gaze at Your feet with humility, and I entreat You in gentle words. Says Tuka, untie the knot of Your chitta. What are You waiting for, O Vitthal?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You punish the innocent; where am I to take my complaint against you? I cry out for mercy. Ears hear me, and yet you keep this stubborn silence. Humbly I gaze at your feet and press close; in soft words I keep on begging. Tuka says: loosen the knot in your heart. What are you waiting for, O Vitthal?
What it means
Tukaram stands before a God who will not answer and names the bind directly: if the judge himself wrongs you, there is no higher court to appeal to. He has done everything a suppliant can, crying for mercy, clinging to the feet, pleading in gentle words, and still meets a silence he calls stubborn. The closing line is part rebuke, part plea: untie the knot in your own heart, the withholding is yours, not mine. He does not abandon the door; he keeps knocking and asks, simply, what God is waiting for. The poem is the patience of love that refuses to be turned away.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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