Longing, the burnt life and God's silence
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काशासाठीं आह्मी जािळला संसार । न करा विचार ऐसा देवा ॥1॥
कैसें नेणों तुह्मां करवतें उदास । माझा प्रेमरस भंगावया ॥ध्रु.॥
समर्पूनि ठेलों देह हा सकळ । धरितां विटाळ न लजा माझा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अवघी मोकलूनि आस । फिरतों उदास कोणासाटीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
For Your sake I have burnt my worldly life to ashes; do not think lightly of this, O God. How can You bring Yourself to be indifferent, to shatter my love for You? I have surrendered this entire body to You; do You not feel ashamed to treat it as impure? Says Tuka, I have abandoned every hope and wander desolate. For whose sake then do I suffer?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
For whose sake did I burn my worldly life? Do not take this lightly, God. How can you turn cold and break my love for you? I have given you this whole body. Do you feel no shame to call it impure? Tuka says: I have let go of every hope. I wander empty. For whom?
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one who has already burned away his ordinary life for God, and now feels God's indifference like a wound. He presses the complaint as a lover: how can you grow cold and shatter the love I carry for you? He reminds God that he has surrendered his whole body, and asks whether God is not ashamed to treat that offered body as unclean. The last cry exposes the stakes: he has dropped every other hope and wanders desolate, and if not for God, there is no reason left for the suffering.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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