Complaint, God caught in the act
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बरा जाणतोसी धर्मनीती । उचित अनुचित श्रीपती। करूं येते राती । ऐसी डोळे झांकूनि ॥1॥
आतां जाब काय कैसा। देसी तो दे जगदीशा । आणिला वोळसा । आपणां भोंवता ॥ध्रु.॥
सेवेचिया सुखास्तव । बळें धरिलें अज्ञानत्व । येइल परि हा भाव। ज्याचा त्यासी कारणा ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे नाहीं । आतां आह्मां बोल कांहीं । जडोनियां पायीं । तुझे त्वां चि घेतलें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You know well the laws of right conduct, what is fitting and what is not, O Lord. Yet You act as if Your eyes are closed, doing as You please in the dark. Now give whatever answer You will, O Lord of the world; You have brought the full circle of consequences around Yourself. It was for the sweetness of service that I willingly held on to ignorance; but that devotion will return to its rightful owner in the end. Says Tukya-bandhu, I have nothing more to say; You took what You wanted by planting Yourself at Your own feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You know well the laws of right conduct, O Lord, what is fitting and what is not. Yet You act as if Your eyes are shut, doing as You please in the dark. Now give whatever answer You will, O Lord of the world. You have brought the whole circle of consequences around onto Yourself. It was for the sweetness of service that I willingly held on to ignorance. But that devotion will return to its rightful owner in the end. Tukya-bandhu says: I have nothing more to say. You took what You wanted by planting Yourself at Your own feet.
What it means
The speaker turns God's own knowledge of right and wrong against Him: He knows the law of fit conduct yet acts as though His eyes are shut, doing as He pleases in the dark. The case is now closed and God must answer, with the whole chain of consequences ringed back onto Himself. There is a confession folded in too: the speaker admits he clung to ignorance for the sweetness of serving, and trusts that the devotion will find its rightful place at last. The final image, God taking what He wanted by planting Himself at His own feet, names a self-sufficient deity who answers to no one. The poem holds both rebuke and surrender at once.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →