Longing, surrender at the only door
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
निष्ठ यासाटीं करितों भाषण । आहेसी तूं सर्वजाण दाता ॥1॥
ऐसें कोण दुःख आहे निवारिता । तो मी जाऊं आतां शरण त्यासी ॥ध्रु.॥
बैसलासी केणें करुनि एक घरीं । नाहीं येथें उरी दुसयाची ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आलें अवघें चि पायापें । आतां मायबापें नुपेक्षावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I speak so stubbornly because You are the all-knowing giver. What sorrow exists that has another remover? I would go and surrender to that one instead. But You have filled the entire house with Your presence; there is no room for any other. Says Tuka, everything has arrived at Your feet; now, O Mother and Father, do not turn away.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I speak so boldly only because You are the all-knowing giver. What sorrow is there that has any other remover? If there were, I would go and take refuge with him instead. But You have filled the whole house with Yourself. There is no room left here for any second one. Tuka says: everything has come to Your feet. Now, Mother and Father, do not turn away.
What it means
Tukaram explains why he keeps clamoring at God and not elsewhere. He speaks so insistently because he knows the Lord is the all-knowing giver; if any other power could remove his sorrow, he would gladly go and surrender there instead. But there is no other: the Lord has filled the whole house of existence, leaving no room for a second refuge. So everything he has, and is, has come down to the Lord's feet by necessity. The closing plea, to the one he calls mother and father, is simply not to turn away from the one who has nowhere else to go.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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