Prayer, complaint to a withholding God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
घेतां आणिकांचा जीव । तेव्हां कींव कराना ॥1॥
आपलें तें वरदळ नेदा । हें गोविंदा कृपणता ॥ध्रु.॥
सेवा तरी इच्छा सांग । चोरिलें अंग साहेना ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अरे धन्या । निसंतान्या विठोबा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When taking the lives of others, You show no compassion. Yet Your own superficial possessions You will not give away. O Govinda, this is miserliness. If You want service, then speak Your wish plainly. Hiding behind excuses is unbearable. Says Tuka, O master, O childless Vithoba, how strange are Your ways.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When you take the lives of others, you show no mercy then. Yet your own surplus you will not give away. Govinda, this is stinginess. If you want service from me, say your wish plainly. I cannot bear this hiding behind excuses. Tuka says: O master, O childless Vithoba, what strange ways are yours.
What it means
Tukaram prays in the voice of bold complaint, taking God to task the way a child argues with a parent. He charges that God spends lives freely yet withholds his own abundance, and he names this plainly as miserliness. His real ask follows: if God wants service from him, then God should state the demand openly instead of hiding behind evasions, which Tukaram cannot stand. The closing line is half scold, half intimacy, calling Vithoba childless and his ways strange; the harshness is the freedom of a devotee who trusts the bond enough to argue inside it.
Prayers
Direct appeals to God: for protection, guidance, strength, and mercy.
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