Bridal mysticism
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आधिल्या भ्रतारें काम नव्हे पुरा । म्हणोनि व्यभिचारा टेकलियें ॥१॥
रात्रंदिस मज पाहिजे जवळी । क्षण त्यानिराळी न गमे घडी ॥२॥
नाम गोष्टी माझी सोय सांडा आतां । रातलें अनंता तुका म्हणे ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
My first husband never fulfilled my desire, so I have taken to adultery. Day and night I need him near me; not one moment apart from him can I bear. Abandon my name, my stories, all concern for me now. Tuka says: I am dyed through in Ananta.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
My first husband never satisfied my heart, so I have turned to another. Day and night I need this one beside me. I cannot bear even a moment away from him. Forget my name. Forget my story. Stop worrying over me. Tuka says: I am dyed through with Ananta, the endless one.
What it means
This is one of Tukaram's boldest images. The soul's old attachments, the whole settled life of the world, are the first husband who never satisfied the heart. God is the new love she has run to. By calling it adultery he names exactly how it looks from outside: a scandal, a betrayal of duty. But the poem is told from inside the love, where the only unbearable thing is a moment apart. He tells the world to drop his name and his story, because the person they knew is gone, soaked through with the endless one.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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