Longing, the ache of desire for God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मनोजन्य व्यथा वेध जाला अंतरा । लवकरी आणा नंदाचिया कुमरा ॥१॥
सखिया वेशिया तुम्ही प्राणवल्लभा । निवेदिला भाव आर्तभूत या लोभा ।
उमटली अंगीं वो सांवळी प्रभा । साच हे अवस्था कळे मज माझ्या क्षोभा ॥ध्रु.॥
नये कळों नेदावी हे दुजियासि मात । घडावा तयासि उत्कंठा एकांत ।
एकाएकीं साक्षी येथें आपुलें चित्त । कोण्या काळें होइल नेणों भाग्य उदित वो ॥२॥
स्वाद सीण देहभान निद्रा खंडन । पाहिले तटस्थ उन्मळित लोचन ।
अवघें वोसाऊन उरले ते चरण । तुका म्हणे दर्शनापें आलें जीवन ॥३॥
पडिली भुली धांवतें सैराट । छंद गोविंदाचा चोजवितें वाट ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The ache born of desire has pierced my innermost being. Bring me the son of Nanda, quickly. O friends, O confidantes, you who are dear as life to me: I have laid bare my longing before you in this desperate love. A dark, beautiful radiance has appeared upon my body, and the truth of my condition is known to me through my own anguish. Do not let this secret reach another's ears; may the meeting happen in solitude and longing. In this, my own heart alone is witness. Who knows when that blessed day will dawn? Taste, exhaustion, body-awareness, and sleep have all been shattered. My eyes are fixed and unblinking, emptied of everything but those feet. Says Tuka, with his vision came new life.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The ache born of desire has pierced my inmost being. Bring me the son of Nanda, quickly. O friends, you who are dear to me as life: I have laid my longing bare before you in this desperate love. A dark, beautiful glow has come over my body, and I know the truth of my state through my own anguish. Do not let this secret reach another's ears. Let the meeting happen in solitude and longing. In this, my own heart alone is the witness. Who knows when that blessed day will dawn. Taste, weariness, awareness of the body, sleep: all are shattered. My eyes are fixed and unblinking, emptied of everything but those feet. Tuka says: with his sight came new life.
What it means
Tukaram voices the soul as a woman pierced by longing for Krishna, confiding to trusted friends a love so intense it has changed her body and undone her ordinary life. She asks for the meeting to be kept secret and held in solitude, since her own heart is the only witness that can know what she feels. The poem names the cost of this longing without flinching: hunger, rest, sleep, even awareness of the body have been shattered, and her eyes rest on nothing but his feet. The claim it lands is the turn at the end. The very anguish that strips everything away is not death but the threshold of life, for the sight of him restores her.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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