Longing, hold to your old promise
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भेटीची आवडी उताविळ मन । लागलेंसे ध्यान जीवीं जीवा ॥1॥
आतां आवडीचा पुरवावा सोहळा । येऊनी गोपाळा क्षेम देई ॥ध्रु.॥
नेत्र उन्मिळत राहिले ताटस्त । गंगा अश्रुपात वहावली ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुह्मी करा साचपणा । मुळींच्या वचना आपुलिया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The mind is restless with longing for union; my very life is fixed in meditation upon You. Now fulfill this celebration of love, O Gopala; come and embrace me. My eyes have opened wide and remain unblinking, while streams of tears flow like the Ganga. Says Tuka, be true to Your own original promise; show us Your sincerity.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Longing for the meeting makes my mind restless. My very life clings in meditation upon You, life upon life. Now fill out this festival of love: come, Gopala, and embrace me. My eyes stay wide open, fixed and unblinking. A Ganga of tears pours down. Tuka says: now make it true. Keep the word You gave at the very beginning.
What it means
This is the cry of a soul that cannot wait for the meeting it lives for. Tukaram's whole life hangs on God, his eyes held open and unblinking, tears falling in a flood. He asks Gopala not for a small favor but for the full festival of love, an embrace. The closing turn is pointed: he holds God to a promise. The original word, the bond God Himself first gave, must now be made true, so the longing is also a claim on God's own faithfulness.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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