Longing, the delay of God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
उशीर कां केला । कृपाळुवा विठ्ठला ॥1॥
मज दिलें कोणा हातीं । काय मानिली नििंश्चती ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठवरी धरूं धीर । आतां मन करूं िस्थर ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जीव । ऐसी भाकितसे कींव ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why have You delayed so long, O merciful Vitthal? Into whose hands have You placed me, and with what assurance do You rest? How long must I hold my patience and keep this mind steady? Says Tuka, my jiva pleads with such longing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why have You delayed so long, merciful Vitthal? Into whose hands have You left me? What assurance lets You rest? How long must I hold my patience? How long must I keep this mind steady? Tuka says: my jiva is pleading like this.
What it means
This is the cry of a soul that feels abandoned mid-wait. Tukaram asks Vitthal straight out why the help is so late, and protests that he has been handed off to someone else's care, as though God has grown easy and unconcerned. The hard part is the holding: he is trying to keep patience and keep the restless mind steady, and he does not know how much longer he can. The poem does not resolve the wait; it simply names the ache and lays the whole plea at God's feet, which is itself the act of trust underneath the complaint.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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