Complaint, the vine torn up by the roots
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निसुर संसार करून । होतों पोट भरून । केली विवसी निर्माण । देवपण दाखविलें ॥1॥
ऐसा काढियेला निस । काय ह्मुण सहित वंश । आणिलें शेवटास । हाउस तरी न पुरे॥ध्रु.॥
उरलों पालव्या सेवटीं । तें ही न देखवे दृष्टी । दोघांमध्ये तुटी । रोकडीचि पाडीली ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे गोड । बहु जालें अति वाड । ह्मणोनी कां बुड । मुळ्यांसहित खावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We were living a quiet, hard-working life, filling our bellies without complaint. Then You contrived this upheaval and showed off Your divinity. Why did You uproot the entire vine, branch and root together? Your desire is still unsatisfied. I alone remain at the frayed end, and even that is unbearable to watch. A clean break has been made between the two of us, right before my eyes. Says Tukya-bandhu, the sweet has become overly abundant, which is why You insist on eating the roots along with the fruit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We were living a quiet, hard life, filling our bellies, not complaining. Then You stirred up this upheaval and showed off Your divinity. You uprooted the whole vine, branch and root together. Why? And still Your hunger is not satisfied. I alone remain at the frayed end, and even that is unbearable to watch. A clean break has been made between us two, right before my eyes. Tukya-bandhu says: the sweet has grown far too plentiful. That is why You insist on eating the roots along with the fruit.
What it means
The image is a vine torn up entire, branch and root, to describe how God uprooted a whole settled family instead of taking one fruit. The speaker, left dangling at the frayed end, watches the bond between the brothers cut clean before his eyes. The closing line is a wry, bitter explanation: the harvest of devotion grew so sweet and so abundant that God, greedy, ate not just the fruit but the roots too. It names a sense that grace did not stop at enough but consumed everything. The grief sits inside a complaint that God's appetite for this devout household had no limit.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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