Longing, the senses quarrel for darshan
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
माझ्या इंिद्रयांसीं लागलें भांडण । ह्मणतील कान रसना धाली ॥1॥
करिती तळमळ हस्त पाद भाळ । नेत्रांसी दुकाळ पडिला थोर ॥ध्रु.॥
गुण गाय मुख आइकती कान । आमचें कारण तैसें नव्हे ॥2॥
दरुषणें फिटे सकळांचा पांग । जेथें ज्याचा भाग घेइल तें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसें करीं नारायणा । माझी ही वासना ऐसी आहे ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A quarrel has broken out among my senses. The ears and tongue say they are satisfied, but hands, feet, and forehead are in torment, and a great famine has fallen upon the eyes. The mouth sings God's glories and the ears listen, but the others cry, 'Our need is different!' When Your vision is granted, the debt of all will be settled, and each will receive its share. Says Tuka, O Narayana, grant this, for such indeed is my longing.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A quarrel has broken out among my senses. The ears and the tongue say they are satisfied. But the hands, the feet, the forehead are in torment, and a great famine has fallen on the eyes. The mouth sings your praises, the ears get to listen, but the others cry, our need is not the same as theirs. When you grant your darshan, every one of them is paid off; each will get its share. Tuka says: do this for me, Narayana. This is what I long for.
What it means
Tukaram dramatizes longing by setting his own senses against one another. Singing and hearing the Name already feed the tongue and the ears, but the hands that would serve, the feet that would walk to the temple, the forehead that would bow, the eyes that would behold, are all starving for their own portion. Each sense wants its direct contact with God, not a borrowed one. The single thing that satisfies the whole assembly at once is darshan, the sight of the Lord; in that one gift every faculty receives its share. So the abhanga becomes a prayer to Narayana: grant your presence, because nothing less settles the whole of me.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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