Tenderness, the mother who hides
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आरुषा वचनीं मातेची आवडी । ह्मणऊनि तांतडी घेती नाहीं ॥1॥
काय होइल माझें मांडिलें कवतुक । आदराची भूक रडारोवी ॥ध्रु.॥
लपोनियां करी चुकुर माऊली । नाहीं होती केली निष्ठासांडी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे करी पारखीं वचनें । भेवउनि तान्हें आळवावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mother's love persists even when a child speaks harshly, and so she does not rush to punish. What will become of my playful petition? The hunger for affection expresses itself through crying and wailing. The mother hides and plays peek-a-boo, but never truly abandons her child. Says Tuka, she speaks testing words and frightens the little one only to draw it closer.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mother loves the child even when its words are rough; that is why she does not rush to punish. What will come of this game I have set up? The hunger for love shows itself in crying and wailing. The mother hides and slips out of sight, but she has not truly cast the child off. Tuka says: she speaks testing words and frightens the little one, only to call it close.
What it means
Tukaram explains God's apparent absence through the image of a mother playing with her infant. When God seems to withdraw, it is like a mother hiding from her child or scolding it with sharp words. It looks like rejection, but it is not abandonment; it is a way of drawing the child nearer. The devotee's crying and complaining is itself the hunger for love finding its voice. The poem reframes the pain of God's silence as a tender game whose whole purpose is closeness, not punishment.
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