Reproach, God feigns ignorance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझीं वर्में आह्मां ठावीं नारायणा । परी तूं शाहाणा होत नाहीं ॥1॥
मग कालाबुली हाका देते वेळे । होतोसि परी डोळे नुघडिसी ॥ध्रु.॥
जाणोनि अज्ञान करावें मोहरें । खोटी खोडी हे रे तुझी देवा ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे कारण प्रचीति । पाहातों वेळ किती तेच गुण ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I know Your every secret, O Narayana, yet You refuse to learn sense. When I call out lovingly, You pretend to stir, yet You do not open Your eyes. Though You know all, You feign ignorance; this deceitful trick is Your specialty, O God. Says Tukya-bandhu, I am simply testing to see how long You can keep up this game.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I know Your every secret, O Narayana, yet You will not come to Your senses. When I call out to You in my confusion, You stir a little, but You will not open Your eyes. You know everything, and still You play the innocent; this is Your nasty old trick, O God. Tukya-bandhu says: the proof is what matters; I am watching to see how long You can keep up these same ways.
What it means
The poet speaks as one who has known God long enough to see through Him. He claims to know all God's secrets, while God pretends not to understand and refuses to truly wake to the cry. Calling this God's habitual trick is the teasing reproach of a familiar, not real contempt. The closing lines turn it into a patient test of faith: the poet will judge by experience, watching to see how long the seeming indifference can last, confident that the response must finally come.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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