Longing, where has God gone
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोठें गुंतलासी योगीयांचे ध्यानीं । आनंदकीर्तनीं पंढरीच्या ॥1॥
काय काज कोठें पडलीसे गुंती । कानीं न पडती बोल माझे ॥ध्रु.॥
काय शेषनशयनीं सुखनिद्रा आली । सोय कां सांडिली तुह्मी देवा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कोठें गुंतलेती सांगा । किती पांडुरंगा वाट पाहूं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where have You become entangled, O Lord? In the meditation of yogis, or in the joyful kirtan of Pandhari? What business holds You, what knot has caught You, that my cries do not reach Your ears? Have You fallen into blissful sleep upon the serpent Shesha, and forsaken all thought of me? Says Tuka, tell me where You are caught up, Panduranga. How long must I wait?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where are you caught up, Lord? In the meditation of the yogis, or in the joyful kirtan of Pandhari? What work has hold of you? What knot has caught you, that my cries do not reach your ears? Have you fallen into a happy sleep on the serpent Shesha? Why have you let go of all thought of me, my God? Tuka says: tell me where you are held, Panduranga. How long must I keep watching the road?
What it means
Tukaram is calling out to a God who has gone silent, and he names every place that might be holding him. Maybe Vitthal is absorbed in the yogis' meditation, or in the kirtan at Pandhari, or asleep on the serpent Shesha in the heaven of milk. The poem turns the saint's distress into a kind of teasing complaint: whatever has hold of you, why has it pulled you away from me? Behind the questions is one ache, named plainly at the end: how long must I keep waiting on the road, watching for you to come.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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