Longing, accusing God of pretending
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां हो आलें नेणों भागा । पांडुरंगा माझिया ॥1॥
उफराटी तुह्मां चाली । क्रिया गेली सत्याची ॥ध्रु.॥
साक्षी हेंगे माझें मन । आर्त कोण होतें तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे समर्थपणे । काय नेणें करीतसां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What has come upon my share, O my Panduranga? Your ways seem turned upside down; the practice of truth has disappeared. My own mind is the witness; whose distress was it in the first place? Says Tuka, You have the power; do You pretend not to know what You are doing?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What has fallen to my lot, O my Panduranga? Your ways have turned upside down; the practice of truth is gone. My own mind is the witness: whose distress was this in the first place? Tuka says: You have all the power. Do You pretend not to know what You are doing?
What it means
Tukaram presses the same complaint into a direct charge against God. He cannot recognize the just dealing he expected; truth itself seems overturned, and he asks what kind of portion has been handed to him. He calls his own mind as witness to remind God that the longing and the distress were never his invention; they were stirred by God in the first place. Then comes the accusation that gives the poem its edge: God is all-powerful, so this neglect cannot be helplessness; it can only be a feigned ignorance. The poem refuses to excuse God, insisting that One who can do anything is answerable for what He withholds.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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