Complaint, where were you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय तुज मागें नाहीं जाणवलें । माझें नाहीं केलें हित कांहीं ॥1॥
डोळे झांकुनियां होसी अबोलणा । तेव्हां नारायणा आतां कैसा ॥ध्रु.॥
न कळे उचित न संगतां स्पष्ट । ऐसा क्रियानष्ट काय जाणे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझा घात तुह्मां ठावा । तरि कां आधीं देवा वारूं नये ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Did You not know this about me before? You have done nothing for my welfare. You close Your eyes and remain silent; how then, O Narayana, shall I find You now? One who is not told plainly what is proper does not know how to act. Says Tuka, my ruin was known to You; then why, O Lord, did You not prevent it beforehand?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Did you not know all this about me already? You have done nothing for my good. You shut your eyes and stay silent; then, O Narayana, how am I to reach you now? One who is never told plainly what is right cannot know how to act. Tuka says: my ruin was known to you. Then why, O Lord, did you not stop it beforehand?
What it means
Tukaram is making a daring complaint, the kind only deep trust permits. He turns the failure back on God: if the Lord knew his weakness all along, then the silence and closed eyes feel like abandonment, and a soul never taught plainly cannot be blamed for stumbling. The pointed question at the end, why did you not prevent my downfall when you saw it coming, is not real accusation so much as the cry of one who wants to be held responsible for and rescued by the very God he leans on. The pattern worth catching in oneself is the way we blame our undoing on never having been shown, while the truth was in front of us the whole time.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →