Longing, asking the way to the feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सांग पांडुरंगा मज हा उपाव । जेणें तुझे पाव आतुडति ॥1॥
न कळे हा निर्धार ब्रह्मादिकां पार । कायसा विचार माझा तेथें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आतां धरुनियां धीर । राहूं कोठवर मायबापा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Tell me, O Panduranga, what is the way by which I may reach Your feet? Even Brahma and the other gods cannot fathom Your depths; what place does my feeble reasoning have there? Says Tuka, how much longer must I hold my patience, O my Mother and Father?
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Tell me, Panduranga, the way by which I may reach your feet. Even Brahma and the gods cannot grasp your depth; what is my poor reasoning worth there? Tuka says: holding my patience now, how long must I wait, O my Mother and Father?
What it means
Tukaram is pleading for guidance toward union with God. He knows his own mind cannot find the way, since even Brahma and the high gods cannot fathom God's depth; his small reasoning is helpless there. So he simply asks God to show him the way to his feet. The cry at the end mixes trust with strain: he is holding on to his patience, but he is weary of waiting, and he calls Vitthal his Mother and Father, the one bound to answer a child.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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