Longing, the bold complaint
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आह्मी ह्मणों कोणी नाहीं तुज आड । दिसतोसी भ्याड पांडुरंगा ॥1॥
हागे माझ्या भोगें केलासी परता । विश्वंभरीं सत्ता नाहीं ऐसी ॥ध्रु.॥
आह्मी तुज असों देऊनि आधार । नाम वारंवार उच्चारितों ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज धरियेलें बळें । पंचभूतीं खळें करूनियां ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I say that no one stands in Your way, yet You appear cowardly, O Panduranga. Perhaps it is my own fate that has made You withdraw; surely it cannot be that the Sustainer of the universe lacks authority. It is I who gives You support by repeating Your name again and again. Says Tuka, You have trapped me by force within the five elements.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I say no one stands in Your way, yet You look like a coward, O Panduranga. Perhaps my own fate has made You hold back; surely the Sustainer of the universe is not so powerless. It is I who hold You up, naming You over and over. Tuka says: You have caught me by force and shut me inside the five elements.
What it means
This is Tukaram quarreling with God out of unbearable longing. He insists nothing blocks God's help, so the delay makes God look timid, and he says so to His face; the harshness is the freedom of a lover, not contempt. He half-blames his own fate for God's withdrawal, then refuses that excuse, because the Sustainer of all cannot truly lack the power to come. He turns the relationship upside down, claiming that his constant repetition of the Name is what keeps God present, and complains that meanwhile he himself has been seized and locked inside the body of the five elements, waiting.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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