Longing, done with false courtesy
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुह्मां आह्मांसवें न पडावी गांठी । आलेति जगजेठी कळों आतां ॥1॥
किती ह्मणों आतां वाइटा वाइट । शिवों नये वीट आल्यावरी ॥ध्रु.॥
बोलिल्याची आतां हे चि परचित । भीड भार थीत बुडवील ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आली रोकडी प्रचिती । झांकणें तें किती कोठें देवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Let us hope that You and I never come into conflict again, O Lord of the world; this much is clear now. How many times must I call evil by its name? Once disgust has come, one should not touch it again. The cost of what has been spoken will be this: if one clings to false courtesy, it will drown everything. Says Tuka, direct experience has arrived. How much longer, O God, can one keep covering it up?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Let you and I never come to a quarrel again, Lord of the world. This much is clear now. How many times must I call the bad thing bad? Once disgust has come, one should not touch it again. Here is the lesson of all that was said: clinging to false courtesy will drown everything. Tuka says: plain proof has come, here in the hand. How much longer, God, and where, can one keep it covered up?
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one who has had enough of inner conflict and wants no more quarrel between himself and the Lord. He has learned, after naming the bad thing over and over, that once true disgust for worldly clinging arises one must not go back and touch it again. The hard lesson he draws is that polite hedging, keeping up appearances out of social regard, will drown a person; deference to what one knows is false is itself the danger. He ends with the force of firsthand experience: the proof is now in his own hand, plain and undeniable, and he asks how long anyone can keep covering over a truth that has already been seen.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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