Longing, the Mother of Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कां गा कोणी न ह्मणे पंढरीची आई । बोलावितें पाहीं चाल नेटें ॥1॥
तेव्हां माझ्या मना होइल समाधान । जाइल सर्व शीण जन्मांतरिंचा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माझी होशील माउली । वोरसोनि घाली प्रेमपान्हा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Will someone not say to me, 'Come, the Mother of Pandhari calls you'? She beckons; look, She calls you to come eagerly. Then my mind will find peace, and the weariness of countless births will vanish. Says Tuka, You will be my Mother, overflowing with the milk of love and pressing it upon me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Will no one say to me, The Mother of Pandhari is calling you? Look, She beckons; come quickly. Then my mind will find rest, and the weariness of all my births will fall away. Tuka says: You will be my Mother, overflowing, and You will press the milk of love upon me.
What it means
Tukaram cries out as a child aching for word that the Mother has called. Here Vitthal at Pandhari is the mother, and the longing is for the summons itself, the message that he is wanted. He names what that call would heal: not just present trouble but the exhaustion carried across many lifetimes, gone the moment he is taken to Her. The closing image is the deepest tenderness, a mother so full of love that she presses her milk on the child unasked. The poem is the helplessness of love that cannot reach God by its own effort and waits to be called home.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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