Longing, the dark night of abandonment
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पडली घोर रजनी । संगी कोणी नसे चि ॥1॥
पहा हो कैसें चालविलें । पिसें गोवलें लावूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
कोठें लपविलें तें अंग । होता संग दिला तो ॥ ।2॥
मज कधीं नव्हतें ठावें । दोही भावें वाटोळें ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे कैंची उरी । दोहीपरि नाडिलें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A deep, dark night has fallen, and there is no one for company. See how He has led me along, attaching me to this madness. Where has He hidden His form? The companionship He once gave is gone. I never knew it would come to this: ruin from both sides. Says Tuka, what chance is left? I have been deceived in every way.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A deep, dark night has fallen. There is no one for company. See how He has led me along, fastening this madness on me. Where has He hidden His form? The companionship He once gave is gone. I never knew it would come to this: ruined on both sides. Tuka says: what chance is left to me? I have been cheated every way.
What it means
This is the cry from the dark night, when the love God once gave is withdrawn. Tukaram looks back and sees that the Lord led him on, fastening on him a madness for the divine, and now hides His form and takes away the nearness he had known. He feels ruined from both sides: he gave up the world for God's sake, and now God too has vanished, so he is left with neither. The poem does not resolve the abandonment; it lets the complaint stand, the bewildered grief of one who feels deceived by the very love that drew him.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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