Longing, watching the road to Pandhari
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वाट पाहें बाहे निडळीं ठेवुनियां हात । पंढरीचे वाटे दृष्टी लागलें चित्त ॥१॥
कई येतां देखें माझा मायबाप । घटिका बोटें दिवस लेखीं धरूनियां माप ॥ध्रु.॥
डावा डोळा लवे उजवी स्फुरते बाहे । मन उतावळि भाव सांडुनियां देहे ॥२॥
सुखसेजे गोडचित्तीं न लगे आणीक । नाठवे घर दार तान पळाली भूक ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे धन्य दिवस ऐसा तो कोण । पंढरीचे वाटे येतां मूळ देखेन ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I stand watching the road, hand raised to my forehead, my eyes and chitta fixed upon the path to Pandharpur. When will I see my mother and father coming? I count the hours, measuring each day as it passes. My left eye flutters, my right arm throbs; my mind races ahead, leaving the body behind. No comfort of bed or sweetness of heart can hold me. I have forgotten home and door; hunger and thirst have fled. Says Tuka, blessed will be that day when I see my Beloved approaching on the road to Pandharpur.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I watch the road, my hand raised to my brow. My eyes, my whole mind, are fixed on the road to Pandhari. When will I see my mother and father coming? I count the hours on my fingers, measuring out each day. My left eye flutters, my right arm throbs. My mind runs ahead, leaving the body behind. No soft bed, no sweetness pleases me; I want nothing else. I have forgotten house and door. Thirst has fled, hunger has run off. Tuka says: which day will it be, that blessed day, when on the road to Pandhari I see my Beloved coming.
What it means
Tukaram paints the ache of waiting for God as a lover or child watching the road for someone dear. He stands with his hand shading his eyes, counting the hours, his whole mind fixed on the path to Pandharpur where Vitthal dwells. The body's omens and his racing mind show how the longing overruns him; he forgets home, and even hunger and thirst fall away. Nothing comfortable can satisfy him because only one thing will: the sight of his Beloved, whom he calls his mother and father, coming up that road. The poem makes desire for God concrete and bodily, and names the blessed day he lives for as the day that wait ends.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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