Reproach, let Godhood be set aside
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आतां दोघांमध्ये काय । उरलें होय वाणीजेसें ॥1॥
निष्ठ हें केलें मन । समाधान न करूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
झुरावें तें तेथींच्या परी । घरिच्याघरीं अवघिया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवपण । गुंडाळून असों दे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What now remains between us two that can be bartered? This mind has been made obstinate without being granted peace. Let one pine within one's own home, as all do. Says Tuka, let Godhood be rolled up and set aside.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What is left now between us two that can be bartered? You have made this mind stubborn, and given it no peace. Let me pine here in my own house, as everyone does in theirs. Tuka says: roll up Your Godhood and put it away.
What it means
Tukaram speaks from the dry stretch where prayer feels unanswered. He asks what is even left to bargain over, since God has hardened his mind and withheld the peace he longs for. With bitter resignation he says he will just stay home and ache, the way everyone quietly suffers in their own walls. The sharp last line tells God to fold up His divine office and set it aside: if Godhood will not act as a Lord should, the title is empty. The harshness is the speech of a wounded lover, not contempt; it is meant to provoke the very response it claims to give up on.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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