Severance, love that meets only in thought
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहुतां रीती काकुलती । आलों चित्तीं न धरा च ॥1॥
आतां काशासाटीं देवा । मिथ्या हेवा वाढवूं ॥ध्रु.॥
तुह्मां आह्मां जाली तुटी । आतां भेटी चिंतनें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लाजिरवाणें । आधर जिणें इच्छेचें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have come pleading in many ways; still You do not hold me in Your chitta. Why then, O God, should I nourish this vain longing any further? Between You and me the bond has broken. Now our meeting will be only in thought. Says Tuka, it is a matter of shame: a life that leans upon desire.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have come pleading in many ways, and still you do not hold me in your heart. Then why, God, should I go on feeding this empty longing? The bond between you and me has snapped. Now our meeting will happen only in thought. Tuka says: it is a shameful thing, a life that leans on its own desire.
What it means
After pleading again and again without response, Tukaram decides to stop. He chooses to break off the visible bond rather than keep nourishing a longing that God seems not to return. The meeting will now happen only inwardly, in thought, since outwardly there is nothing. The closing line turns the blade on himself: a life propped up by its own wanting is something to be ashamed of, so the renunciation is also a confession about the neediness of his own desire.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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