Betrayed prayer, calling God back
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आश्चर्य तें एक जालें । मना आलें माझिया ॥1॥
मढएापाशीं करुणा केली । तैसी गेली वृथा हे ॥ध्रु.॥
न यावा तो कैसा राग । खोटें मग देखोनि ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे कैंचा बोला । शोध विठ्ठला माझिया ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One strange thing has come to my mind. I showed compassion to a dead thing, and that compassion went entirely to waste. How can one not feel anger upon seeing such falseness? Says Tuka, where are Your words now? Come, search for me, O my Vitthal.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One strange thing has come into my mind. I poured out my compassion before a dead thing, and it went entirely to waste. How can a man not feel anger when he sees such falseness? Tuka says: where have your words gone now? Come, search me out, my Vitthal.
What it means
Tukaram describes the shock of pouring his heart out and getting nothing back, as if he had spent his tenderness on something lifeless. The anger he names is the anger of feeling deceived after trusting. Yet the bitterness does not end in rejection: he turns and demands that God keep his word. The last line reverses the whole complaint into a summons, telling Vitthal to come and seek him out, which is itself an act of refusing to let the bond go.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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