Longing, no lack at God's feet
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुझे ह्मणों आह्मां । मग उणें पुरुषोत्तमा ॥1॥
ऐसा धर्म काय । अमृतानें मृत्यु होय ॥ध्रु.॥
कल्पवृक्षा तळीं । गांठी बांधलिया झोळी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे परीस । सांपडल्या उपवास॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If we call ourselves Yours, O Supreme Being, should there then be any lack? What kind of justice is it that ambrosia should bring death? Sitting beneath the wish-fulfilling tree, one ties a knot in an empty bag. Says Tuka, having found the philosopher's stone, one should not go hungry.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If we call ourselves Yours, O Purushottama, should there still be any lack? What kind of law is this, that nectar should bring death? Sitting under the wish-granting tree, a man ties up his empty bag with a knot. Tuka says: having found the philosopher's stone, he goes on fasting.
What it means
Tukaram presses God with a complaint shaped as a question. If they truly belong to the Supreme Being, then any want they still feel is a kind of contradiction, like the nectar of immortality somehow dealing out death. He sharpens it with two images of self-defeat: a man sits beneath the tree that grants every wish, yet ties his bag shut as if afraid to receive; a man holds the stone that turns iron to gold, yet stays hungry. The fault he names is not God's stinginess but the devotee's failure to draw on a nearness that is already given.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →