Surrender, no service is enough
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मूळ करणें संतां । नाहीं मिळत उचिता ॥1॥
घडे कासयानें सेवा । सांग ब्रह्मांडाच्या जीवा ॥ध्रु.॥
सागर सागरीं । सामावेसी कैंची थोरी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भावें । शरण ह्मणवितां बरवें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How can one serve the saints at their very root? What is truly fitting is not easily found. Tell me, O Jiva of the universe, how is such service even to be done? The ocean merging into the ocean: where is the greatness in that? Says Tuka, it is beautiful to take refuge and call oneself surrendered.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How can I serve the saints at their very root? What would truly be fitting is not to be found. By what means is such service even done? Tell me, O Soul of the universe. When the ocean merges into the ocean, where is the greatness in that? Tuka says: with true feeling, it is good simply to take refuge and call oneself surrendered.
What it means
Tukaram confesses that he cannot repay the saints; nothing he could offer would be adequate to what they are. He asks the Soul of the universe, the very God who lives in the saints, how such service is even possible, since the giver is so small beside the gift. The image of the ocean pouring into the ocean undercuts any pride: when you merge into something infinitely greater, you add no greatness of your own. So the honest move, he says, is the humble one, with sincere feeling simply to take refuge and let yourself be called surrendered, and that is enough.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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