Longing, the calf that cannot feed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कामधेनूचें वासरूं । खाया न मिळे काय करूं ॥1॥
ऐसें आह्मां मांडियेलें । विठो त्वां कां सांडियेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
बैसोनि कल्पद्रुमातळीं । पोटासाटीं तळमळीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नारायणा । बरें लोकीं हें दीसेना ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I am the calf of the wish-fulfilling cow, yet I cannot find anything to eat. O Vittho, why have You set things up this way and then abandoned me? Sitting beneath the wish-fulfilling tree, I agonize over my hunger. Says Tuka, O Narayana, this does not look good to the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am the calf of the wish-granting cow, and still I find nothing to eat. What am I to do? This is what has been set up for me. Vittho, why have You thrown me aside? I sit at the foot of the wish-granting tree and writhe over an empty stomach. Tuka says: Narayana, this does not look good in front of people.
What it means
Tukaram makes his complaint sharp by setting hunger right next to abundance. He is the calf of the cow that grants every wish, sitting under the tree that gives whatever is asked, and yet he starves; the very source of plenty is at hand and he is left out. He puts the contradiction to God as a blunt question: why set things up this way and then abandon me? The closing line is half plea, half dare, that God's own reputation is at stake, since it looks bad before the world for the wish-granting Lord to let His own devotee go hungry. It is the bold, intimate scolding of one who trusts enough to argue.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
More in this theme →