Longing, the despair of being forgotten
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळलें माझा तुज नव्हे रे आठव । काय काज जीव ठेवूं आतां ॥1॥
तूं काय करिसी माझिया संचिता । धिग हे अनंता जालें जिणें ॥ध्रु.॥
पतितपावन राहिलों या आशा । आइकोनि ठसा कीर्ती तुझी ॥2॥
आतां कोण करी माझा अंगीकार । कळलें निष्ठ जालासी तूं ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे माझी मांडिली निरास । करितों जीवा नास तुजसाटीं ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I see now that You have no thought of me. What use then is it to keep this life? What will You do with my accumulated fate? Cursed is this living, O Ananta. I stayed on, hoping in Your reputation as the Purifier of the Fallen, having heard the fame of Your glory. Now who will accept me? I see that You have become heartless. Says Tuka, I am driven to despair. I will give up my very life for Your sake.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I see now that you hold no memory of me. Then what use is it to keep this life? What will you do with all my stored-up fate? Cursed is this living, O Ananta. I stayed on, hoping in your name as the Purifier of the Fallen, having heard the fame of your glory. Now who will take me in? I see you have turned hard. Tuka says: I am brought to utter despair; I will give up my life for your sake.
What it means
Tukaram pushes his complaint to its sharpest edge: if God keeps no thought of him, then living itself has lost its point. He had clung to one hope, the famous title Purifier of the Fallen, and stayed alive on the strength of that reputation; now that hope seems to mock him. The accusation that God has turned heartless is not unbelief but the protest of a love that feels abandoned. The vow to give up his life is meant to be heard by the beloved as a final, desperate appeal, a way of laying the whole weight of the relationship at God's feet.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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