Longing, a mother's love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
करावें गोमटें । बाळा माते तें उमटे ॥१॥
आपुलिया जीवाहूनी । असे वाल्हें तें जननी ॥ध्रु.॥
वियोग तें तिस । त्याच्या उपचारें तें विष ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे पायें । डोळा सुखावे ज्या न्यायें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mother wishes to do good for her child, and the child reflects that goodness back. She holds the child dearer than her own life. Separation from the child is poison to her, even if it comes in the guise of comfort and care. Says Tuka, just as the foot delights the eye that beholds it, so is this principle of love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mother wishes good for her child, and that good rises up again in the child. She holds it dearer than her own life. Separation from it is poison to her, even when it comes dressed as care and comfort. Tuka says: just as the foot gives delight to the eye that looks on it, so it is with this love.
What it means
Tukaram uses a mother's love to describe how God and the devotee hold each other. The mother wills only good for her child, and that good comes back reflected; she values the child above her own life, so that any separation is poison even if it wears the mask of comfort. His closing image, the eye delighting in the foot, points to a love that does not climb or rank, in which the lowest part gives joy to the highest. The verse is naming the quality of true devotional love: protective, self-forgetting, and pained by any distance. It reads as a longing for that same closeness with the Lord.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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