Longing, holding the elusive Lord
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
परपरता तूं पळोनि जासी दुरी । अनावर या लौकिका बाहेरी वो ॥१॥
माया करुणा हे करिते बहुत । किती सोसूं या जनांचे आघात ।
न पुरे अवसरु हें चि नित्यानित्य । तूं चि सोडवीं करूनि स्थिर चित्त ॥ध्रु.॥
बहुत कामें मी गुंतलियें घरीं । जासी डोळा तूं चुकावूनि हरी ।
करितां लाग न येसी च पळभरी । नाहीं सायासाची उरों दिली उरी वो ॥२॥
तुज म्हणीयें मी न संगें अनंता । नको जाऊं या डोळियां परता ।
न लगे जोडी हे तुजविण आतां । तुकयास्वामी कान्होबा गुणभरिता वो ॥३॥
घाली कवाड टळली वाड राती । कामें व्यापिलीं कां पडिली दुश्चित्ती ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You keep running further and further away, beyond all worldly restraint. You show so much tenderness, yet how long must I endure the blows of this world? There is never enough time; this happens day after day. You alone must steady my wavering mind. I am entangled in the many duties of the household, while you, Hari, slip away from my sight. For all my effort, you will not stay even a moment; you have not left me even the comfort of my striving. I beg you, O Ananta, do not go beyond the reach of my eyes. Without you, nothing else holds any value. Says Tuka, O Krishna, O son of delight, O generous Kanhoba, stay.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You keep running further and further away, beyond all worldly hold. You show so much tenderness, yet how long must I bear the blows of this world? There is never enough time; this happens day after day. You alone must steady my wavering mind. I am tangled in the many duties of the household, while you, Hari, slip from my sight. For all my effort you will not stay even a moment. You have not left me even the comfort of my striving. I beg you, O Ananta, do not go beyond the reach of my eyes. Without you nothing else holds any worth. Tuka says: O Krishna, O son of delight, O generous Kanhoba, stay.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as one caught between the pull of God and the grip of daily life, complaining that the Lord slips away just as the world keeps striking blows. The frame is the householder's struggle: tangled in endless duties, never enough time, the mind wavering and unable to hold steady on its own. The poem names the particular pain that the harder she tries to grasp him, the more he eludes her, leaving her not even the small comfort of feeling her effort was worth something. The claim it lands is the plea itself: only God can steady the mind that cannot steady itself, and so she begs Ananta not to pass beyond her sight, since without him nothing else has any value at all.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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