Trust, God does not delay
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मागत्याची टाळाटाळी । झिंझ्या वोढूनि कपाळीं॥1॥
ऐसा तंव मोळा । तुमचा नसेल गोपाळा ॥ध्रु.॥
नसेल ना नवें । ऐसें धरियेलें देवें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जाला । उशीर नाहीं तो विठ्ठला॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He evades the one who asks, pulling wrinkles across his forehead. Surely, O Gopala, Yours is not such a disposition. Or is it something new that God has adopted? Says Tuka, there has been no delay on Vitthal's part.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A man who is asked for something stalls and dodges, wrinkling his forehead. But O Gopala, surely Your way is not like that. Has God taken up some new habit? No, He has not. Tuka says: there has never been any delay on Vitthal's part.
What it means
Tuka contrasts a tight-fisted human with the open hand of God. When you ask a grudging man for help, he frowns and puts you off; that is the way of the world. Then he turns to Gopala and insists that giving is not that kind of withholding nature. He even half-asks whether God has picked up some new, stingy habit, and answers his own doubt: no, nothing has changed. The settled conviction is that Vitthal has never once been slow to give; if there is a delay, it is not on God's side.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →