Longing, watching the road to Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भेटीलागीं जीवा लागलीसे आस । पाहे रात्रीं दिवस वाट तुझी ॥1॥
पूणिनमेचा चंद्र चकोराचें जीवन । तैसें माझें मन वाट पाहे ॥ध्रु.॥
दिवाळीच्या मुळा लेंकी आसावली । पाहतसे वाटुली पंढरीची ॥2॥
भुकेलिया बाळ अति शोक करी । वाट पाहे परि माउलीची ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे मज लागलीसे भूक । धांवूनि श्रीमुख दावीं देवा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My jiva is gripped with longing for Your meeting; day and night I watch the road for You. As the chakora bird lives for the full moon, so my mind awaits You. As a daughter yearns for the festive homecoming at Diwali, so I gaze down the road to Pandhari. As a hungry child cries bitterly, watching for its mother's return, so I wait. Says Tuka, I am starving with hunger; come running and show me Your blessed face, O God.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My soul is gripped with longing to meet You; night and day I watch the road for You. As the chakora bird lives only for the full moon, so my mind watches and waits. As a daughter aches for her Diwali homecoming, so I gaze down the road to Pandhari. As a hungry child cries hard, watching for its mother, so I wait. Tuka says: I am starving with hunger; come running, O God, and show me Your blessed face.
What it means
Tukaram puts his longing for God into images everyone knows the ache of. The chakora bird is said to live only for the moon; the married daughter counts the days to her festival homecoming; the hungry child wails and stares down the road for its mother. Each image is helpless and one-pointed: the waiting one cannot make the longed-for thing arrive. That is exactly his condition before Vitthal of Pandhari. He is not asking for teaching or boon, only the face. And he asks God to come running, the way a mother runs to a crying child.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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