The debtor God, letter as witness
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पत्र उचटिलें प्रेत्नें । ग्वाही कराया कारणें । नाहींतरी पुण्यें । तुझ्या काय उणें आह्मां ॥1॥
नांव तुझें चि करोनि । आहों सुखें पोट भरोनि । केली जाणवणी । ह्मणउनि नाहीं ह्मणसील॥ध्रु.॥
आतां इतकियाउपरी । दे नको भलतें करीं । ह्मणती ॠणकरी । आमुचा इतकें उदंड ॥2॥
तुकयाबंधु जागा । अळवावया पांडुरंगा। केला कांहीं मागायाची नव्हती गरज ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have opened this letter with effort, only to have a witness. Otherwise, by Your merit, what could we possibly lack? In Your name alone we have been living comfortably, filling our bellies. Should I have kept silent, You would have said, 'He never informed me.' Now, after all this, give what is owed and do not do anything reckless. People will say You owe us an enormous debt. Says Tukya-bandhu, this was done to invoke Panduranga; there was no real need to ask for anything.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I opened this letter with effort, only to have a witness on record. Otherwise, by your merit, what could we ever lack? Living in your name alone, we fill our bellies in comfort. I made the demand so you could not later say, He never told me. Now, after all this, give what is owed and do nothing reckless. People will say you owe us an enormous debt. Tukya-bandhu says: this was done only to call out to Panduranga; there was no real need to ask for anything.
What it means
The poet explains why he bothered to make the demand at all: to put it on the record, so God can never claim He was not informed. The honest admission follows that living in God's name, he already lacks nothing, which softens the whole quarrel. The point of the lawsuit was never the goods but the calling, the chance to summon Panduranga by name. So the fierce dunning turns out to be a pretext for closeness, a way to make God show up. The last line quietly confesses that the debt-collecting was love's device all along.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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