Longing, craving that exhausts itself
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कार्य चि कारण । तृष्णा पावविते सीण ॥1॥
काय करुनि ऐसा संग । सोसें चि तूं पांडुरंग ॥ध्रु.॥
रूपीं नाहीं गोडी । हांवें हांवें ऊर फोडी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे पडे भारी । ऐशा वरदळाचे थोरी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Craving itself is the cause and the effect; thirst leads only to more exhaustion. Why, O Panduranga, do You keep company with such suffering? When there is no sweetness in the form, one only beats one's chest in vain. Says Tuka, the weight grows heavier, and that is the glory of this excess.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The thing done becomes the cause again; craving only brings more weariness. What is the use of such company, when You alone are the longing, Panduranga? When there is no sweetness in the form, one beats one's chest in vain desire. Tuka says: the burden grows heavy, and that is the whole glory of this excess.
What it means
Tukaram looks at how craving feeds itself: each thing you do plants the cause of the next want, and thirst leads only to fresh exhaustion. He turns to Panduranga and asks why keep such company with suffering, when God Himself is the only longing worth having. Without real sweetness, devotion turns into empty self-beating, all show and ache and no nourishment. He ends with a sharp irony: the only thing this overload of craving produces is a heavier and heavier weight, and he names that weight, mockingly, its glory.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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