Longing, mad for the unseen
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुजलागीं माझा जीव जाला पिसा । अवलोकितों दिशा पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
सांडिला वेव्हार माया लोकाचार । छंद निरंतर हा चि मनीं ॥ध्रु.॥
आइकिलें कानीं तें रूप लोचन । देखावया सीण करिताति ॥2॥
प्राण हा विकळ होय कासावीस । जीवनाविण मत्स्य तयापरी ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां कोण तो उपाव । करूं तुझे पाव आतुडे तो ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My jiva has gone mad for You, O Panduranga; I gaze in every direction searching for You. I have abandoned all commerce, all worldly custom and illusion; this single longing fills my mind without cease. My ears have heard of You, and now my eyes suffer with the urge to behold that form. My life-breath grows faint and restless, like a fish torn from the water. Says Tuka, what remedy remains? Let me find whatever path leads to Your feet.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My soul has gone mad for you, Panduranga; I keep looking in every direction for you. I have dropped my business, my dealings, the customs of the world; this one longing fills my mind without a break. My ears have heard of you, and now my eyes ache to see that form. My breath grows faint and frantic, like a fish pulled out of the water. Tuka says: what is left for me to do? Let me find whatever way leads to your feet.
What it means
A pure cry of viraha, the ache of separation. Tukaram has let the whole world fall away, business, custom, everything, leaving a single longing that gives him no rest. He has only heard of God, not yet seen him, and the gap between hearing and seeing is unbearable: his eyes ache, his breath fails like a fish out of water. The poem makes no argument and asks for no boon but one, the way to God's feet. It is the state in which longing itself has become the whole of the practice.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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