Complaint, the generous one withholds
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पराधीन माझें करूनियां जीणें । सांडीं काय गुणें केली देवा ॥1॥
उदार हे कीतिन असे जगामाजी । कां तें ऐसें आजि पालटिलें ॥ध्रु.॥
आळवितों परी न पुरे चि रीग । उचित तो त्याग नाहीं तुह्मां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कां बा मुळीं च व्यालासी । ऐसें कां नेणसी पांडुरंगा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You have made my life dependent on others, O Lord; why have You cast me aside? Your fame as the generous one resounds throughout the world; why has it changed today? Though I plead, the door does not open; the fitting generosity is not found in You. Says Tuka, why did You bring me into being at all, O Panduranga, if this is what You intended?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You have made my life depend on others, Lord. What good did casting me aside do you? The world rings with your fame as the generous one. Why has that changed today? I keep calling, but I cannot get in; the door does not open. Giving what is fitting is not in you. Tuka says: why did you give birth to me at all, Panduranga, if you would not know me like this?
What it means
This is a lover's accusation flung straight at God. Tukaram says his life has been made dependent on other people, and asks what Vitthal gained by abandoning him. He turns God's own reputation against him: the whole world calls Panduranga generous, so why is that generosity not reaching the one man crying at his door. The sharpest line is the last, where he asks why God bothered to bring him into being at all if this neglect was the plan. The harshness is the harshness of intimacy, not contempt: only someone who fully expects God's care complains this bitterly when it seems withheld.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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