Abhanga 3509
It is honest and allowed to voice a bold complaint when help is delayed and to ask directly why suffering is being allowed to continue.
The verse
काय तुमचिया सेवे न वेचते गांठोळी । मोहें टाळाटाळी करीतसां ॥१॥
चतुराच्या राया आहो पांडुरंगा । ऐसें तरी सांगा निवडूनि ॥ध्रु.॥
कोण तुम्हां सुख असे या कौतुकें । भोगितां अनेकें दुःखें आम्हा ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे काय जालासी निर्गुण । आम्हां येथें कोण सोडवील ॥३॥
Literal translation
Doesn't-gāṇṭhōḷī-get-spent-in-service — through-mōha-ṭāḷā-ṭāḷī. Chatura-king-Pāṇḍurangā — tell-clearly. What-sukha-in-kautuka — we-bear-many-duḥkhas. Tukā: have-you-become-nirguṇa — who-here-releases-us.
What it means
A 3-verse complaint. Your storehouse doesn't get spent serving us — yet you delay; what's your enjoyment in this game while we suffer; have you turned formless — who else can release us?
For someone today
Tukaram voices a bold, honest complaint here: helping him would not cost God's storehouse anything, yet the help keeps getting put off. He demands plainly, calling Pandurang the king of the clever, to explain what pleasure there could be in this game while people like him bear so much suffering. He even asks whether God has withdrawn into some distant, formless state, leaving no one around to actually rescue anyone.
मराठी: तुकाराम इथे एक धीट, प्रामाणिक तक्रार मांडतात, मदत करण्यात देवाच्या भांडारातून काहीच खर्च होणार नाही, तरीही ती मदत सारखी पुढे ढकलली जाते. ते थेट विचारतात, चतुरांचा राजा असणाऱ्या पांडुरंगाला, की आम्ही एवढे दुःख भोगत असताना या खेळात तुम्हाला काय आनंद मिळतो. ते हे सुद्धा विचारतात की देव कुठे निर्गुण, दूरच्या अवस्थेत निघून गेला आहे का, जिथे कोणालाही खरोखर वाचवायला कोणीच उरलेले नाही.
Where this applies
- When you feel that help is being withheld even though it would cost nothing to give
- When you are frustrated by delays in getting relief from real suffering
- When you want to speak honestly, even angrily, in prayer instead of pretending everything is fine
- When you wonder whether the source of help has grown distant or unreachable