Longing, set my heart like a debtor's
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दुडीवरी दुडी । चाले मोकळी गुजरी ॥1॥
ध्यान लागो ऐसें हरी । तुझे चरणीं तैशापरी ॥ध्रु.॥
आवंतण्याची आस । जैसी लागे दुर्बळासी ॥2॥
लोभ्या कळांतराची आस । बोटें मोजी दिवस मास ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे पंढरीनाथा । मजला आणिक नको व्यथा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Just as one copper coin follows another and trade flows freely, may my meditation upon Your feet, O Hari, flow with the same steady ease. Just as a poor man waits eagerly for an invitation to a feast, and a greedy man counts the days and months until his interest comes due: let my longing for You be like that. Says Tuka, O Lord of Pandhari, give me no further affliction.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
As one coin follows another and the trader's wealth moves freely, let my meditation rest on Your feet, Hari, just like that. As a poor man longs for the feast he is invited to, as a greedy man counts on his fingers the days and months till his interest comes due, let my longing be. Tuka says: Lord of Pandhari, give me no other affliction.
What it means
Tukaram prays for a longing as steady and consuming as the world's own appetites. He reaches for unholy images on purpose: money piling on money in trade, a hungry pauper fixed on a promised feast, a lender counting the days until his interest matures. Each one names a desire that never lets the mind wander, and that is exactly the constancy he wants turned toward Vitthal's feet. The honesty is in admitting how reliably greed and hunger hold attention, and asking for that same grip to be aimed at God. His one closing request is to be spared every other affliction, so nothing competes for that focus.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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