The nature of God, mine is the reckoning
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्षर अक्षर हे तुमचे विभाग । कासयानें जग दुरी धरा ॥1॥
तैसे आह्मी नेणों पालटों च कांहीं । त्यागिल्याची नाहीं मागें चाड ॥ध्रु.॥
प्रतिपादिता तूं समविषमाचा । प्रसाद तो याचा पापपुण्य ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे तुह्मां नाना अवगणीं । लागे संपादणी लटिक्याची ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The kshara and the akshara, the perishable and the imperishable, are Your own divisions. Why, then, do You hold the world at a distance? We, for our part, know nothing of changing. We have no longing for what has been renounced. You are the one who governs the balance of good and evil; merit and sin are Your own dispensation. Says Tuka, You endure all manner of slights, yet the reckoning with falsehood remains Yours alone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The perishable and the imperishable are both your own divisions. So why do you hold the world at arm's length? As for us, we know nothing of changing. We have no craving left for what we gave up. You are the one who balances the even and the uneven. Merit and sin are your own dispensing. Tuka says: you put up with every kind of slight, yet the settling of accounts with falsehood is still yours to do.
What it means
Tukaram is arguing gently with God about who owns the world's flaws. The whole division into perishable and imperishable is God's own arrangement, so he asks why God then keeps the world at a distance as if it were foreign to him. The devotee, for his part, no longer changes sides or hankers after what he renounced, so the instability is not on his end. Since God himself apportions merit and sin and holds the scale of even and uneven, the responsibility runs back to him. The closing point is that God endures countless slights patiently, but the final reckoning with falsehood is still his own work to carry out, not the devotee's burden to fear.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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