Complaint, the Name and misfortune
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझें नाम मुखीं तयासी विपित्त । आश्चर्य हें चित्तीं वाटतसे ॥1॥
काय जाणों काय होसील निजला । नेणों जी विठ्ठला मायबापा ॥ध्रु.॥
भवबंधनाचे तुटतील फांसे । तें कां येथें असे अव्हेरिलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझें दचकलें मन । वाटे वांयांविण श्रम केला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
That one who has Your Name upon his lips should still face misfortune fills me with wonder. What could have happened? Have You fallen asleep? I cannot fathom this, O Vitthal, O mother and father. The bonds of worldly existence should have been shattered, yet here they remain, neglected. Says Tuka, my mind is startled; it seems all my effort has gone to waste.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One who has your Name on his lips still meets misfortune. This astonishes my heart. What can have happened? Have you fallen asleep? I cannot understand it, O Vitthal, O mother and father. The bonds of this worldly life should have broken by now. Why are they still here, left untouched? Tuka says: my mind is startled. It seems all my effort has gone to waste.
What it means
Tukaram lodges a genuine complaint with God, and he does not soften it. The promise he trusted was plain: the Name on the lips should break the bonds of worldly existence. So he stares at the misfortune still gripping a devotee and asks the blunt question, has God fallen asleep on the job. The frame the poem leaves open is the test of faith itself: when the promised rescue does not come, the devotee is left wondering whether the whole effort was wasted. He says it out loud rather than pretending to be serene, because honest alarm before God is itself a kind of trust.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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