Complaint, You saved others
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पूवाअ बहुतांचे केले प्रतिपाळ । तें मज सकळ श्रुत आहे ॥1॥
अज अविनाश निर्गुण निरामय । विचारिलें काय त्यांचे वेळे ॥ध्रु.॥
तयांचियें वेळे होशी कृपावंत । माझा चि कां अंत पहातोसि ॥2॥
नारद प्रहाद उपमन्य धुरू । त्यांचा अंगीकारु कैसा केला ॥3॥
अंबॠषीसाटीं गर्भवास जाले । कां गा मोकलिलें कृपासिंधु ॥4॥
धर्माचें उिच्छष्ट अर्जुनाचीं घोडीं । आणीक सांकडीं कितीएक ॥5॥
जालासि लुगडीं तया द्रौपदीचीं । न ये कां आमुची कृपा कांहीं ॥6॥
तुका ह्मणे कां गा जालासि कठीण । माझा भाग सीण कोण जाणे ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
In the past You protected so many devotees. I am well aware of all that. Unborn, imperishable, formless, and beyond sickness, did You consider any of this at their time of need? At their hour You became compassionate. Why then do You test only me to the end? Narada, Prahlad, Upamanyu, Dhruva: how did You embrace them? For Ambarisha's sake, You entered the womb. Why then have You abandoned me, O ocean of mercy? You ate the leftovers of Dharma and groomed Arjuna's horses, and bore countless other hardships. You became Draupadi's saris. Why does no mercy come for me? Says Tuka, why have You become so hard? Who knows the weight of my suffering?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
In the past You protected many. I know all of it well. You are unborn, imperishable, formless, free of all sickness. Did You weigh any of that when their hour came? At their hour You grew kind. Why then do You test only me to the end? Narada, Prahlad, Upamanyu, Dhruva: how You took them up. For Ambarisha You entered the womb. Why then have You abandoned me, ocean of mercy? You ate the leftovers of Dharma and groomed Arjuna's horses, and bore countless hardships. You became Draupadi's saris. Why does no mercy come for me? Tuka says: why have You turned so hard? Who knows the weight of my suffering?
What it means
Tukaram argues with God by reciting God's own record. He knows the stories: Narada, Prahlad, Dhruva lifted up, the Lord taking births and even menial service for the sake of devotees, becoming the cloth that covered Draupadi. The list is not praise but evidence in a case. If You acted then, why not now; why is my hour the one where You stand back and watch. The harshness is aimed at the apparent silence, and it rests on faith, not its loss. Only someone certain of God's mercy would dare to charge Him with withholding it, and the last line insists that the depth of his own suffering is being overlooked.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →