Complaint to God, the unequal mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवघीं तुज बाळें सारिखीं नाहीं तें । नवल वाटतें पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
ह्मणतां लाज नाहीं सकळांची माउली । जवळी धरिलीं एकें दुरी ॥ध्रु.॥
एकां सुख द्यावें घेऊनि वोसंगा । एक दारीं गळा श्रमविती ॥2॥
एकां नवनीत पाजावें दाटून । एकें अन्न अन्नें करितील ॥3॥
एकें वाटतील न वजावीं दुरी । एकांचा मत्सर जवळी येतां ॥4॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे नावडतीं त्यांस । कासया व्यालास नारायणा ॥5॥
निनांवा हें तुला । नांव साजे रे विठ्ठला ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
All of us are Your children, yet You do not treat us the same. This astonishes me, O Panduranga. You call Yourself the mother of all, yet You hold some close and push others away. Some You take upon Your lap and give them joy; others You leave straining at Your door. Some You feed with butter, pressing it upon them; others must beg for a single morsel. Some You never wish to leave Your side; others You despise when they draw near. Says Tukya-bandhu, why did You give birth to those You do not love, O Narayana? This is a stain upon You. The name Vitthal suits You well.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We are all Your children. Yet You do not treat us the same. This astonishes me, O Panduranga. You call Yourself the mother of all; have You no shame? You hold some close and push others away. Some You take on Your lap and give them joy. Others You leave straining at Your door. Some You feed with butter, pressing it on them. Others must beg for a single morsel. Some You never want to leave Your side. Others You despise when they come near. Tukya-bandhu says: why did You give birth to the ones You do not love, O Narayana? This is a stain on You. The name Vitthal suits You well.
What it means
Kanhoba, Tukaram's brother, presses one charge against God by holding Him to His own claim. If Vitthal is the mother of all, a mother cannot play favorites; yet some souls are fed butter on His lap while others beg at the door for a crumb. The poem names the unfairness plainly: God draws some near and pushes others away, and that is no way for a parent to act. The closing taunt, that the very name Vitthal fits Him, turns His title into the indictment. The frame the poem leaves unspoken is the bhakta's ache to be among the held, not the turned-away, and the audacity of love that dares to scold God to His face.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →