The Name, God hears the feeling
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बाळ बापा म्हणे काका । तरी तो कां निपराध ॥१॥
जैसा तैसा भाव गोड । पुरवी कोड विठ्ठल ॥ध्रु.॥
साकरेसि म्हणतां धोंडा । तरी कां तोंडा न रुचे ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे आरुष बोल । नव्हे फोल आहाच ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If a child calls its father "uncle," is the child not blameless? Whatever the feeling, if it is sweet, Vitthal fulfills that wish. If you call sugar a stone, does it not still taste sweet on the tongue? Says Tuka: rough words, spoken truly, are no hollow husk.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When a small child calls its father uncle, is the child to blame for it? Whatever the feeling is, so long as it is sweet, Vitthal grants the wish behind it. If you call sugar a stone, does it stop tasting sweet on your tongue? Tuka says: rough, clumsy words, if they are spoken truly, are no empty husk.
What it means
Tukaram reassures the unlearned and the inarticulate. A toddler who muddles its words and calls father uncle is innocent; the love is real even when the speech is wrong. So too with God: Vitthal answers the feeling, not the correctness of the address. Sugar stays sweet whatever you call it, and plain, rough words carry real substance when the heart behind them is true. The teaching guards devotion from the tyranny of correctness. God listens past the grammar to the love.
The Power of the Name
The supremacy of nama-smarana: God's name as the highest practice.
More in this theme →