Longing, keep the conversation going
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जीवींचें कां नेणां । परि हे आवडी नारायणा ॥1॥
वाढवावें हें उत्तर । कांहीं लाज करकर ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठें वांयां गेले । शब्द उत्तम चांगले ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बाळा । असतात िप्रय खेळा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Do You not know what is in my chitta? Yet this is my love for You, O Narayana. Please extend this conversation; I feel some hesitation and awkwardness. Where have all those beautiful and excellent words gone? Says Tuka, children are always dear when they are at play.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Do You not know what is in my heart? Yet this is my love for You, Narayana. Stretch this talk out longer. I feel some shyness, some awkwardness. Where have they gone, all those good and beautiful words? Tuka says: children are dear when they are at play.
What it means
Tukaram, sure that God already knows his inmost heart, still wants the exchange to continue, because the loving back-and-forth is itself the joy. He asks Narayana to draw the conversation out, confessing a tender shyness that makes the words come hard. He misses the fine words that used to flow and wonders where they have gone. The closing image explains the asking: just as a child is most dear to its parent when it is at play, the devotee delights in playing before God, and that playful nearness is what he is begging not to lose.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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