Argument with God, the settlement at hand
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां हो वाडवितां देवा । मज घरी समजावा । केवडा हो गोवा । फार केलें थोडएाचें ॥1॥
ठेविन पायांवरी डोई । यासी तुमचें वेचे काई । जालों उतराई । जाणा एकएकांचे ॥ध्रु.॥
निवाड आपणियांपाशीं । असोन कां व्हावें अपेसी । होती गांठी तैसी । सोडूनियां ठेविली ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे गोड । होतें जालिया निवाड । दर्शनें ही चाड । आवडी च वाढेल ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why do You exaggerate things, O Lord? Come home and settle the matter. How big a fuss You have made out of something small! Let me place my head upon Your feet; what does it cost You? We shall be quits, each paying the other's due. The settlement lay in our own hands all along, yet we chose to suffer needlessly. The knot was there, and I have simply untied it. Says Tuka, how sweet everything becomes once the verdict is clear. Even the longing for a glimpse will only deepen into love.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why do you blow it up so, Lord? Come home and settle it. What a fuss you have made of something small. Let me lay my head on your feet; what does it cost you? We are quits, each paying the other's due. The settlement was in our own hands all along, yet we chose needless suffering. The knot was there, and I have simply untied it. Tuka says: how sweet it is once the verdict is clear; even the longing for a glimpse will only deepen into love.
What it means
Tukaram scolds God gently for making a great affair out of a small matter and asks him to come and close the account. The whole transaction costs nothing: he lays his head on God's feet, and the debt is squared on both sides. The sharp turn is that the power to settle was always in their own hands, and the suffering came only from leaving the knot tied; he has now untied it himself. He closes on the sweetness of a cleared verdict, where even the ache for a single glimpse of God no longer torments but ripens into deeper love.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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