Complaint to God, why this world of fear
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सत्य तूं सत्य तूं सत्य तूं विठ्ठला । कां गा हा दाविला जगदाकार ॥1॥
सांभाळीं आपुली हाक देतो माया । आह्मांसी कां भयाभीत केलें ॥ध्रु.॥
रूप नाहीं त्यासी ठेवियेलें नाम। लटका चि श्रम वाढविला ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कां गा जालासी चतुर । होतासी निसुर निविनकार ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You are truth, You are truth, You are truth, O Vitthal. Then why have You projected this appearance of the world? Protect Your own creation; I cry out to You, O Maya. Why have You made us live in fear? That which has no form, You have given it a name. You have needlessly multiplied this toil. Says Tuka, why have You become so clever? You were once formless, desireless, and beyond all qualities.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You are truth, you are truth, you are truth, O Vitthal. Then why have you shown us this whole spread of a world? Look after your own; this Maya keeps calling out. Why have you made us live in fear? You have no form, yet you took a name, and so you only piled up false trouble. Tuka says: why have you turned so clever? You used to be plain, without desire, beyond all qualities.
What it means
Tukaram presses a direct grievance against Vitthal, beginning from the one thing he is sure of: God alone is real. If that is so, he asks, why project this entire appearance of a world that holds us in fear? He charges that the formless took on a name and form for nothing but sport, and thereby manufactured needless suffering for souls. The sharpness is aimed at God himself, not softened: Tukaram accuses the once plain, desireless, attributeless one of growing too clever, and asks him to own the creatures caught inside his game.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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