Autobiography, the reluctant saint
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय दिनकरा । केला कोंबड्यानें खरा ॥१॥
कां हो ऐसा संत ठेवा । भार माझे माथां देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
आडविलें दासीं । तरि कां मरती उपवासी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे हातीं । कळा सकळ अनंतीं ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Was the sun made genuine by the rooster's crow? Why then, O God, place this precious treasure of sainthood as a weight upon my head? If maidservants could obstruct You, then why would people die of fasting? Says Tuka, all arts and skills rest in the hands of Ananta.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Was the sun made real by the rooster's crowing? Then why, O God, do you lay this heavy treasure of sainthood on my head? If a few maidservants could really block your will, then why would anyone die of fasting and penance? Tuka says: every power and every skill rests in the hands of Ananta, the endless one.
What it means
A wry protest from a reluctant saint. The rooster crows at dawn, but the sun rises by its own power, not because the rooster called it; so too, Tukaram says, his own reputation for holiness adds nothing to God and only burdens him. He waves off the idea that any human effort, a servant's interference, a faster's austerity, controls divine outcomes. Everything is already in God's hands. Underneath the humility is a deep trust: he refuses the weight of being thought a saint because he knows all the doing is God's, never his own.
Autobiography
Tukaram's own account of his life, struggles, awakening, and mission.
More in this theme →