Longing, life worthless without God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कासया वांचूनि जालों भूमी भार । तुझ्या पायीं थार नाहीं तरी ॥1॥
जातां भलें काय डोिळयांचें काम । जंव पुरुषोत्तम न देखती ॥ध्रु.॥
काय मुख पेंव श्वापदाचें धांव । नित्य तुझें नांव नुच्चारितां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां पांडुरंगाविण । न वांचतां क्षण जीव भला ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why should I live and be a burden upon the earth, if I have no place at Your feet? What use are these eyes if they cannot behold the Supreme Being? What use is this mouth, wandering like a beast, if it does not constantly utter Your name? Says Tuka, without Panduranga, this life is better ended than lived even for a moment.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why should I go on living and be a weight on the earth, if there is no shelter for me at your feet? What good is the work of these eyes if they never see Purushottama? What use is this mouth, running wild like a beast, if it does not always speak your name? Tuka says: now, without Panduranga, even one more moment of this life is better lost than lived.
What it means
Tukaram measures his life only by its nearness to God and finds it worthless without that. If there is no refuge at God's feet, then his existence is just dead weight on the earth. He turns on his own faculties: eyes that never see the Supreme are useless, and a mouth that does not constantly speak the Name is no better than an animal's. The sharp closing claim is not a wish to die but a refusal to value any life that does not have Panduranga in it; a single Godless moment, he says, is not worth keeping.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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