Reverence with discernment, bow from a distance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जन देव तरी पायां चि पडावें । त्याचिया स्वभावें चाड नाहीं ॥1॥
अग्नीचें सौजन्य शीतनिवारण । पालवीं बांधोनि नेतां नये ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे विंचु सर्प नारायण । वंदावे दुरोन शिवों नये ॥3॥
भक्त भागवत जीवन्मुक्त संत । महिमा अत्यद्भुत चराचरीं।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If someone is divine, bow at their feet. Have no craving for their nature. The grace of fire is the removal of cold, yet you cannot tie fire in your garment and carry it away. Says Tuka, a scorpion and a snake are also forms of Narayana. Salute them from a distance; do not touch them. The devotees, the Bhagavatas, the jivanmukta saints: their glory throughout creation is beyond all wonder.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If someone is divine, bow at their feet. Do not crave their nature for yourself. The kindness of fire is that it drives off cold, yet you cannot tie fire in your garment and carry it away. Tuka says: a scorpion and a snake are Narayana too. Salute them from a distance; do not touch them. The devotees, the Bhagavatas, the liberated saints: their glory through all creation is beyond wonder.
What it means
Tukaram teaches reverence joined to discernment. Where there is true divinity, bow to it, but do not greedily want to possess its nature as your own. Fire shows the principle: it is good because it warms you, yet you cannot fold it into your clothes and carry it off; its blessing has its proper distance. So even a scorpion or a snake is a form of Narayana and deserves a salute, but from a safe distance, not a touch. The point is that honoring God in all things does not erase the differences between things; the right response to each is reverence shaped by what it actually is, and the glory of the true saints, set above all this, is beyond telling.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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