Complaint, the merciful one unmasked
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां कळों आले गुण । अवघे चि यावरोन । चोखट लक्षण । धरिलें हें घरघेणें ॥1॥
या नांवें कृपासिंधु । ह्मणवितोसी दीनबंधु । मज तरी मैंदु । दिसतोसी पाहातां ॥ध्रु.॥
अमळ दया नाहीं पोटीं । कठीण तैसाचि कपटी । अंधळ्याची काठी । माझी गुदरसी च ना ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे पुरता । नाहीं ह्मुण बरें अनंता। एरवीं असतां । तुझा घोंट भरियेला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Now Your qualities have become clear from all of this. You have seized our home with an innocent face. You call Yourself an ocean of mercy, a friend of the helpless, but to me You appear nothing but a scoundrel. There is no genuine compassion in Your belly; You are as hard and deceitful as ever. You will not even return the blind man's walking stick. Says Tukya-bandhu, it is a good thing You are not fully capable, O Infinite One; otherwise You would have drained the last drop.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Now Your qualities are clear, from all of this. You seized our home wearing an innocent face. You call Yourself an ocean of mercy, a friend of the helpless. But to me You look like nothing but a scoundrel. There is no real compassion in Your belly. You are as hard and as deceitful as ever. You will not even give back the blind man's stick. Tukya-bandhu says: it is a good thing You are not fully able, O Infinite One. Otherwise You would have drained the last drop.
What it means
Here the speaker says God's true character has finally shown through the gentle titles. Ocean of mercy and friend of the helpless are exposed, in his eyes, as a robber's cover; the home was taken by a face that pretended innocence. The sharpest image is the blind man's walking stick, the one support a helpless person cannot spare, which God will not return. The grim relief at the end, that He is not fully able or He would have taken everything, measures how total the loss feels. The poem dares to strip God of His comforting names and stand in the place of the one left with nothing, while still addressing Him as the Infinite.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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