Longing, urgent for the sight
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोण उपाव करूं भेटावया । जाळावी हे काया ऐसें वाटे ॥1॥
सोडोनियां गांव जाऊं वनांतरा । रुकुमादेवीवरा पहावया॥ध्रु.॥
करूं उपवास शोधूं हें शरीर । न धरवे धीर नारायणा॥2॥
जाती आयुष्याचे दिवस हे चारी । मग केव्हां हरी भेटशील ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे कांहीं सांगा विचारोनि । विठो तुझे मनीं असेल तें ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What remedy shall I try to meet You? I feel like burning this body. Leaving the village, I would go to the wilderness to see the husband of Rukmadevi. I will fast and discipline this body. I cannot hold my patience, O Narayana. These few days of life are passing; when then will You meet me, O Hari? Says Tuka, tell me something after due thought, O Vittho. Whatever is in Your mind, let it be.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What remedy can I try to meet You? I feel like burning this body. I would leave the village and go into the forest to see the husband of Rukmadevi. I will fast and discipline this body. I cannot hold my patience, Narayana. These few days of life are passing. When then will You meet me, Hari? Tuka says: think and tell me something, Vittho. Whatever is in Your mind, let it be.
What it means
Tukaram is past calm waiting; he casts about for any means and reaches for extremes, even the wish to burn the body that keeps him from God. He would abandon home for the forest, fast, drive the body hard, anything to force the meeting. Under the impatience lies a real fear: life is short, the days are running out, and the encounter still has not come. So he presses for an answer, asking God to speak a verdict. The last line bends the urgency back into surrender. After all the demands, he hands the outcome over: whatever is in Your mind, let that be.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →