Longing, give me back what is mine
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सरलियाचा सोस मनीं । लाजोनियां राहिलों ॥1॥
आवडीनें बोलावितों । येथें तें तों लपावें ॥ध्रु.॥
माझें तें चि मज द्यावें । होतें भावें जोडिलें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विश्वंभरा । आळीकरा बुझावा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The longing for what has been lost remains in my mind, and I stay quiet out of shame. I call to You with love, yet You hide away. Give me back what is mine, what I had gathered through devotion. Says Tuka, O sustainer of the universe, comfort and console me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The longing for what I lost is still in my mind. I keep quiet out of shame. I call you with love, and you hide. Give me back what is mine. I gathered it through devotion. Tuka says: O sustainer of all, console me, for I am crying like a stubborn child.
What it means
Tukaram catches himself in a tangle of feeling: the longing for what he lost will not leave, yet he is ashamed to keep asking. So he calls God with love, and God seems only to hide further away. His demand is grounded, not grasping; he wants back what is rightly his, the nearness he earned through his own devotion. Naming himself a stubborn, fretful child, he asks the sustainer of the whole world to come and console him. The honesty is the point: he does not pretend to be a serene saint, he admits he is sulking and crying, and trusts that God will quiet him anyway.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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