Metaphor, the soldiers who guard the way
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाइकांनीं पंथ चालविल्या वाटा । पारख्याचा सांटा मोडोनियां ॥1॥
पारखिये ठायीं घेउनियां खाणें । आपलें तें जन राखियेलें ॥ध्रु.॥
आधारेंविण जें बोलतां चावळे । आपलें तें कळे नव्हे ऐसें ॥2॥
सांडितां मारग मारिती पाईक । आणिकांसी शीक लागावया ॥3॥
तुका ह्मणे विश्वा घेऊनि विश्वास । पाईक तयास सुख देती ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The paiks have kept the paths and routes of tradition in motion, breaking open the outsiders' stores of supply. Taking provisions from the outsider's camp, they have protected their own people. Whatever is spoken without inner foundation merely chatters; what is truly one's own is not recognized in such speech. Those who stray from the path, the paiks punish, so that others may take heed. Says Tuka, having taken the trust of the whole world, these paiks give happiness to all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The paiks have kept the paths and routes of the tradition moving, breaking open the outsiders' stores. Taking provisions from the outsider's camp, they have protected their own people. Whatever is spoken without inner foundation only chatters. What is truly one's own is not found in such speech. Those who stray from the path the paiks punish, so that others may take heed. Tuka says: having won the trust of the whole world, these paiks give happiness to all.
What it means
Tukaram's soldier-image now serves the keeping of a living tradition. The paiks hold the routes open and break into the outsiders' stores to provision and protect their own people. He cuts in with the test that runs through these verses: speech without inner ground is only chatter, and what is genuinely one's own is never found in empty words. Those who wander off the true path are corrected, hard, so others learn from it. The verse ends in trust earned across the whole world, and the joy these faithful servants then give to all. The plunder and punishment are figures for guarding the way of devotion and the discipline that keeps a seeker on it.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
More in this theme →