The debtor God, stubborn farmer
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुज ते सवे आहे ठावें । घ्यावें त्याचें बुडवावें । परि ते आह्मांसवें आतां न फावे कांहीं ॥1॥
नव्हों सोडायाचे धणी । कष्टें मेळविलें करोनि । पाहा विचारोनी । आढी धरोनि काम नाहीं॥ध्रु.॥
अवघे राहिले प्रकार । जालों जीवासी उदार । असा हा निर्धार । कळला असावा असेल ॥2॥
आतां निदसुर नसावें । गाठ पडली कुणब्यासवें । तुकयाबंधु ह्मणे राखावें । देवा महत्व आपुलें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You know very well that Your way is to take from people and ruin them. But that will not work with me any longer. I am not one to let go of what I have earned through toil. Think it over carefully; stubbornness will serve no purpose here. All pretenses are over. I have become reckless with my own life. Let this determination be clearly understood. Now do not be complacent; You have met a tenacious farmer. Says Tukya-bandhu, O God, protect Your own honor.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You know your own habit well: you take from people and then ruin them. But that will not work on me now. I am not one who lets go of what I earned by hard toil. Think it over; stubbornness will get you nowhere. All pretending is finished. I have grown reckless with my own life. Let this resolve be clearly understood. Do not be careless now: you have run into a tenacious farmer. Tukya-bandhu says: God, protect your own honor.
What it means
Here the soul names itself a kunbi, a dogged peasant farmer who will not be cheated of what his labor earned. The devotion is the hard-won crop, and God is the cunning landlord who usually takes and ruins; the poet declares the old trick has met its match. He says he is past caring for his own safety, which is the surrender that makes him impossible to scare off. The closing line flips the pressure onto God: it is your honor on the line, so guard it by paying. The whole stance is that fierce, single-minded clinging is the surest way to corner grace.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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