Longing, take me as your own
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपुलेंसें करुनी घ्यावें । आश्वासावें नाभींसें ॥1॥
ह्णउनि धरिले पाय । आवो माय विठ्ठले ॥ध्रु.॥
कळलासे सीन चिंता । शम आतां करावा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जीवीं वसें । मज नसें वेगळे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Make me Your own and comfort me with Your embrace. That is why I have taken hold of Your feet, O Mother Vitthal. The weary sting of anxiety is known to me now; let there be peace at last. Says Tuka, dwell within my chitta and never be apart from me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Make me your own and take me up. Comfort me with your embrace. That is why I have taken hold of your feet, O Mother Vitthal. You know how worn I am with worry. Now give me peace. Tuka says: dwell within my heart, and never be apart from me.
What it means
This is the plea of a tired devotee asking to be claimed. Tukaram asks Vitthal, whom he addresses as Mother, to make him his own and to comfort him, and he says he has gripped those feet for exactly that reason. He admits openly that anxiety has worn him out, and asks only for peace now, nothing grander. The final request is the deepest one: not a gift or a rescue from outside, but for Vitthal to live inside his heart and never leave. The longing here is for union and constant presence, the end of feeling separate from God.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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