Longing, the complaint of dry love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळों आलें ऐसें आतां । नाहीं सत्ता तुह्मांसी ॥1॥
तरी वीर्य नाहीं नामा । जातो प्रेमा खंडत ॥ध्रु. ॥
आड ऐसें येतें पाप। वाढे ताप आगळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे गुण जाला । हा विठ्ठला हीनशक्ति ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now I perceive that You lack the power to help. Your name has lost its potency; the stream of love runs dry. Sin comes as an obstacle, and suffering grows greater still. Says Tuka, this Vitthal seems to have grown weak in strength.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now I see it plainly. You have no power left. Your name has lost its strength. The stream of love is breaking, running dry. Sin comes in like a wall across my path, and the burning grows worse. Tuka says: this Vitthal has gone weak; his strength has thinned.
What it means
Tukaram throws his pain straight at God in the language of accusation, which is itself a kind of fierce intimacy. He says the Name no longer works, the love has stopped flowing, sin keeps blocking him and the inner fire only grows. The harsh claim, that Vitthal himself has grown weak, is the devotee's way of forcing God to answer; it stakes God's own honor on rescuing the one who cries out. The poem does not resolve the complaint; it leaves the protest standing, trusting that the Lord cannot bear to be called powerless.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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