Loving complaint, demanding to be claimed
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय उणें जालें तुज समर्थासी । ऐसा मजपाशीं कोण दोष ॥1॥
जो तूं माझा न करिसी अंगीकार । सांगेन वेव्हार संतांमधीं ॥2॥
तुजविण रत आणिकांचे ठायीं । ऐसें कोण ग्वाही दावीं मज ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे काय धरूनी गुमान । सांग उगवून पांडुरंगा ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What have You lost, O Capable One? What fault do You find in me, that You will not accept me as Your own? I will take this matter before the saints. Show me one witness who can prove I am devoted to anyone but You. Says Tuka, why do You hold this pride? Settle the matter clearly, O Panduranga.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What have you lost, you who are able to do anything? What fault do you find in me? You will not accept me as your own. I will take this matter before the saints. Show me one witness who can prove that I am devoted to anyone but you. Tuka says: why do you hold this pride? Settle the matter clearly, O Panduranga.
What it means
This is a lover's lawsuit, not a humble petition. Tukaram presses God like a plaintiff: you lose nothing by taking me, so what is the fault that makes you withhold yourself? He threatens to bring the case before the saints, the only court he trusts, and dares God to produce a single witness that his heart has gone to any other god. The boldness is the devotion: he is so sure he belongs to God that he treats God's apparent silence as an unpaid debt. Settle it openly, Panduranga; stop holding back.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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