Saints, God in ready cash
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तिर्थी धोंडा पाणी । देव रोकडा सज्जनीं ॥१॥
मिळालिया संतसंग । समर्पितां भलें अंग ॥ध्रु.॥
तिर्थी भाव फळे । येथें आनाड तें वळे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे पाप । गेलें गेल्या कळे ताप ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
At pilgrimage sites, stone and water. Among the saintly, God is ready cash. When you find the company of saints, offer your body to them wholly. At sacred places, faith alone bears fruit. Here, even the wayward is turned back to the path. Says Tuka, when sin departs, only then is the fever known.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
At the pilgrimage places there is only stone and water. Among the saints, God is ready cash, here in your hand. When you find the company of the holy, give your whole self over to them. At the sacred sites, faith bears fruit only slowly; here, even the wayward person is turned back to the path. Tuka says: only once your sin has actually left you do you realize the fever it had been.
What it means
One of Tukaram's most famous lines, and a quiet revolution in where God is found. The river-shrines, he says, hold only stone and water; the living God is found among the saints, and there he is not a distant promise but cash in hand, immediately spendable. So when you find such company, hold nothing back; give your whole self. Unlike the pilgrimage sites, where blessing comes slowly and only to the faithful, the company of the saints can turn even a wayward person around on the spot. And the proof is felt afterward: only when the fever of sin has lifted do you understand how sick you had been.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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