Longing, half-help is not enough
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
हा गे आलों कोणी ह्मणे बुडतिया । तेणें किती तया बळ चढे ॥1॥
तुह्मी तंव भार घेतला सकळ । आश्वासिलों बाळ अभयकरें ॥ध्रु.॥
भुकेलियां आस दावितां निर्धार । किती होय धीर समाधान ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दिली चिंतामणीसाटीं । उचित कांचवटी दंडवत ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When someone merely says 'Here, I have come' to a drowning person, how much strength does that give? You have truly taken on our entire burden and reassured us, Your children, with the hand of fearlessness. Showing food to a hungry person and giving assurances, how much patience and peace does that bring? Says Tuka, in exchange for the wish-fulfilling gem, a fitting offering of prostration and a glass bangle is all I can give.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Someone calls out to a drowning man, 'Here, I have come.' How much strength does that give him? You have truly taken on the whole burden and comforted me, your child, with the hand that gives fearlessness. To show food to a hungry man and only promise it, how much patience and peace does that bring? Tuka says: in return for the wish-granting gem you have given me, a fitting gift would be prostration and a glass bangle.
What it means
Tukaram is contrasting words of help with help that arrives. A shout of 'I am coming' does almost nothing for a man going under, and a meal merely shown to the hungry brings no real ease; both leave the heart still waiting. Against this he sets what God has actually done: lifted the whole burden onto himself and reassured his child with a hand that takes away fear, not just a promise. The last line measures the exchange and confesses how lopsided it is: God has handed over the wish-fulfilling gem, the chintamani, and all Tukaram can lay down in return is his prostration and a cheap glass bangle. Devotion can never pay back grace in kind.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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