Longing, the soul in exile
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोणाचें चिंतन करूं ऐशा काळें । पायांचिया बळें कंठीतसें ॥1॥
पाहातसें वाट येई गा विठ्ठला । मज कां हा केला परदेश ॥ध्रु.॥
बहुतांचे सत्ते जालों कासावीस । जाय रात्री दिस वैरियांचा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे बैसें मनाचिये मुळीं । तरीं च ही जाळीं उगवतीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whom shall I contemplate in such times? I endure only by the strength of Your feet. I watch the road, waiting for You, O Vitthal. Why have You sent me into this exile? I am tormented at the hands of many. Days and nights pass under the sway of enemies. Says Tuka, come and sit at the root of my mind, and only then will these tangles unravel.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whose name shall I hold in mind in times like these? I get through only by the strength of Your feet. I watch the road. Come, Vitthal. Why have You sent me into this exile? Many have power over me and I am tormented. My nights and days pass under enemies. Tuka says: come and sit at the root of my mind; only then will these tangles come undone.
What it means
Tukaram cries out from a sense of abandonment, calling his life a foreign land, an exile away from God. He has no other refuge to turn to and holds on by clinging to Vitthal's feet while he watches the road for him to come. The enemies who rule his days and nights are the cravings and fears of the mind, the forces that hold power over a soul cut off from God. The remedy he asks for is exact: let God take His seat at the very root of the mind, and the knots that bind him will loosen by themselves.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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