Longing, weaker than a mother's love
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जीव जायवरी सांडी करी माता । हे तों आश्चर्यता बाळकाची ॥1॥
दुर्बळ कीं नाहीं आइकत कानीं । काय नारायणीं न्यून जालें ॥ध्रु.॥
क्षणक्षणा माझा ने घावा सांभाळ । अभाग्याचा काळ ऐसा आला ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं वचनासी रुचि । फल कटवें चि तें तें होय ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A mother endures to the point of giving up her very life for the sake of her child. Such is the wonder of an infant's power. Is He weak then, that He does not hear with His own ears? What deficiency has arisen in Narayana? Moment by moment, You must keep watch over me. The time of the ill-fated one has come to this. Says Tuka, my own words have lost all relish. Whatever fruit comes now is bitter and astringent.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A mother will give up her own life for her child. Such is the power of an infant. Is He weak, then, that He cannot hear with His own ears? What lack has come over Narayana? Watch over me from one moment to the next. The unlucky one's hour has come to this. Tuka says: my words have lost all their relish. Whatever fruit comes now tastes bitter and sharp.
What it means
Tukaram measures God against an ordinary mother and finds God strangely lacking. A mother will die for her infant; the helpless child commands that much love. So why does Narayana, who is not weak, seem not to hear? He begs for moment by moment care, naming himself the unlucky one whose time has turned hard. The closing image is bleak: even his own words have gone flat, and everything tastes bitter. He is not denying God's power; he is pleading that it be turned toward him as a mother's is toward her child.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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