Longing, you are my only kin
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुजविण मज कोण वो सोयरें । आणीक दुसरें पांडुरंगे ॥१॥
लागलीसे आस पाहा तुझें वास । रात्री वो दिवस लेखीं बोटीं ॥२॥
काम गोड मज न लगे हा धंदा । तुका म्हणे सदा हें चि ध्यान ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Who is kin to me besides you, O Panduranga? There is no other. I wait longingly for your presence, counting the days and nights on my fingers. No work appeals to me, no worldly occupation holds my interest. Says Tuka, this alone is my constant meditation.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Who is kin to me but you, Panduranga? There is no other. I wait for you. I watch for your coming. I count the nights and days on my fingers. No work tastes sweet to me. This business does not hold me. Tuka says: this alone is my meditation, always.
What it means
Tukaram strips his whole life down to one relation. He tells Panduranga that no one else counts as family; everything else has fallen away. The waiting is physical: he counts off the nights and days on his fingers, the way someone counts down to a loved one's return. Work no longer interests him, not because he is idle, but because his attention has gone entirely to one place. He calls that fixed attention his only meditation, so that even his longing has become his practice.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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