Longing, the shut temple door
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आडकलें देवद्वार । व्यर्थ काय करकर ॥१॥
आतां चला जाऊं घरा । नका करूं उजगरा ॥ध्रु.॥
देवा लागलीसे निज । येथें उभ्या काय काज ॥२॥
राग येतो देवा । तुका म्हणे नेघे सेवा ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The temple door is shut; why make a fuss over nothing? Come, let us go home now and not keep this pointless vigil. God has fallen asleep; what business do we have standing here? Says Tuka, God is annoyed and will not accept our service.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The temple door is shut. Why make a fuss over nothing? Come, let us go home now. Do not keep this pointless vigil. God has fallen asleep. What use is there in standing here? Tuka says: God is annoyed, and he will not accept our service.
What it means
On the surface Tukaram is telling the others to give up and go home, since the door is closed and God seems asleep and even displeased. But the words are spoken by a man who cannot leave, and the giving-up is a kind of complaint pressed against the very door he refuses to abandon. The shut door, the sleeping God, the rejected service: these name the experience of devotion gone silent, when the Lord seems to withhold himself. Saying God will not accept our service is itself an act of service, the lover protesting at the threshold.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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