Longing, drawn to the cradle
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझिया पाळणा ओढे माझें मन । गेलों विसरोन देहभाव ॥1॥
लागला पालट फेडणें उसणें । येणें चि प्रमाणें पांडुरंगा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझा जीव जैसा ओढे । तैसा चि तिकडे पाहिजेल ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My mind is drawn toward Your cradle, and I have forgotten all sense of the body. The debt must be repaid in return, O Panduranga, in this very manner. Says Tuka, just as my jiva yearns for You, so must the same longing come from Your side.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My mind is drawn toward Your cradle; I have forgotten the sense of having a body. The exchange has begun, the debt is to be repaid; by this same measure, O Panduranga. Tuka says: just as my soul is drawn to You, exactly so must the pull come from Your side too.
What it means
Tukaram is pulled toward the infant form of God in its cradle so strongly that body-consciousness simply drops away. He frames love as a mutual debt: he has given his longing, and now God must repay in the same coin. The bold turn is the last line, where he insists the attraction cannot be one-sided; if his soul is drawn to God, then God must be drawn to him by the very same measure. It is the confidence of love that dares to hold the Lord to an equal exchange.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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