Complaint, dragging God before the saints
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अवगलासीं झोंडपणें । परी मी जाण जीवें जिरों नेदीं ॥1॥
कळों येईल रोकडें । उभा करिन संतांपुढें ।
तुझें काय एवढें । भय आपुलें मागतां ॥ध्रु.॥
आजिवरी होतों नेणता । तों तुज फावलें रे अनंता ।
कवडीचा तो आतां । पडों नेदीन फेर ॥2॥
ठेविला ये जीवनीं जीव । ह्मणे तुकयाचा बंधव ।
माझा गळा तुझा पाव । एके ठायीं बांधेन ॥3॥
मागें असताशी कळला । उमस घेऊं नसता दिला।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have dodged and squirmed, but know that I will not let this pass while I live. I will bring this into the open and stand You before the saints. Is Your claim so great that You should fear our small request? Until now I was ignorant and You had Your way, O Infinite One. But now I will not let You off for even a cowrie's worth. Says Tukya-bandhu, I have staked my life on this. My throat and Your feet are bound together.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have dodged and squirmed. But know this: I will not let it pass while I live. It will come out into the open. I will stand You before the saints. Is Your claim so great that You should fear our small request? Until now I was ignorant, and You had Your way, O Infinite One. But now I will not let You off for even a cowrie's worth. Tukya-bandhu says: I have staked my life on this. My throat and Your feet are bound together in one place.
What it means
The speaker threatens to take his grievance public: he will haul God before the assembly of saints and force the matter into the open, the way one drags a debtor before a council. His earlier ignorance let God have His way, but now he will not forgive even a cowrie's worth of the debt. The closing image is total: his throat tied to God's feet in a single knot, so that God cannot leave without him and he will not survive being cut loose. It is the language of a man who has bet his whole life on this bond. The audacity is the point; the bhakta turns his helplessness into a hold on God that cannot be shaken off.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →