Longing, calling out and getting silence
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ह्मणउनी दास नव्हे ऐसा जालों । अनुभवें बोलों स्वामीपुढें ॥1॥
कां नाहीं वचन प्रतिउत्तराचें । मी च माझ्या वेचें अट्टाहासें ॥ध्रु.॥
कासयाने गोडी उपजावा विश्वास । प्रीती कांहीं रस वाचुनियां ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे अगा चतुरा शिरोमणी । विचारावें मनीं केशीराजा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Therefore I have become like one who is no longer truly a servant. I speak before my Lord from my own experience. Why is there no word, no reply? I alone exhaust myself in loud, brazen outcry. Without some sweetness, without the very rasa of love, how can faith or affection take root? Says Tuka, O crown jewel of the wise, O Keshiraja, reflect upon this in Your mind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
And so I have become like one who is no longer truly a servant. I speak before my Lord out of what I have lived. Why is there no word, no reply? I wear myself out alone in this loud, stubborn crying. Without some sweetness, without the very taste of love, how can faith take root, how can affection grow? Tuka says: O crown jewel of the wise, O Keshiraja, turn this over in Your mind.
What it means
Tukaram speaks as a servant who feels he has stopped being one, since service without an answer hardly counts as service. He has cried out long and hard with no reply, and he names the cost: he is exhausting himself alone. Then he makes a quiet argument about how love works. Faith and affection cannot grow without some sweetness, some taste of being loved in return. He ends by appealing to God's intelligence, asking the "crown jewel of the wise" to simply consider the matter. He is asking God to be reasonable about love.
Longing and Separation
Cries from the dark night of the soul: remonstrances, complaints, and desperate yearning.
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