Longing, come quickly and sit with me
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भेटीवांचोनियां दुजें नाहीं चित्तीं । येणें काकुलती याजसाटीं ॥1॥
भेटोनियां बोलें आवडीचें गुज । आनंदाच्या भोजें जेवूं संगें ॥ध्रु.॥
मायलेकरासीं नाहीं दुजी परि । जेऊं बरोबरी बैसोनियां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे ऐसें अंतरींचें आर्त । यावें जी त्वरित नारायणा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My chitta desires nothing but Your meeting. That is why I come pleading. Let us meet and share the intimate secrets of devotion. Let us sit together and feast on bliss. Between mother and child there is no formality. Let us sit side by side and share the meal. Says Tuka, such is the longing of my chitta. Come quickly, O Narayana.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Nothing is in my heart but to meet you; that is why I come pleading. Let us meet and speak the dear secrets of love; let us eat together at a feast of joy. Between mother and child there is no other way; let us sit side by side and share the meal. Tuka says: such is the longing inside me. Come quickly, Narayana.
What it means
Tukaram strips his wanting down to one thing, the meeting itself, and pictures it in the most domestic terms. What he hopes for is not awe at a distance but intimacy: shared secrets, a meal eaten together, sitting side by side. The image of mother and child carries the key word, no formality, because between them there is no distance to keep and no ceremony to observe. So he asks God to drop every gap of rank and simply come, and to come quickly, the way a child's hunger will not wait.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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