Gratitude, grace beyond reckoning
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय पुण्यराशी । गेल्या भेदूनि आकाशीं ॥1॥
तुह्मी जालेति कृपाळ । माझा केला जी सांभाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
काय वोळलें संचित । ऐसें नेणें अगणित ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नेणें । काय केलें नारायणें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What stores of merit must have pierced through the very skies? O saints, you have become merciful and have cared for me. What accumulated karma could have ripened to bring this about? I cannot measure it; it is beyond reckoning. Says Tuka, I do not know what Narayana has done.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What heaps of merit must have torn through the very skies? O saints, you turned merciful and took care of me. What stored-up karma ripened to do this? I cannot count it. Tuka says: I do not know what Narayana has done.
What it means
Tukaram is overwhelmed by a grace he cannot explain. He wonders what vast store of merit could have reached so high as to win this, since the saints have turned merciful and taken him into their care. He gropes for a cause in his past deeds and finds none he can measure. The poem ends in honest bafflement: he simply does not know what Narayana has worked on his behalf, and he stops trying to account for it.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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