Devotion, bread on the spike
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
भक्ति तों कठिण शुळावरील पोळी । निवडे तो बळी विरळा शूर ॥1॥
जेथें पाहें तेथें देखीचा पर्वत । पायाविण भिंत तांतडीची ॥ध्रु.॥
कामावलें तरि पाका ओज घडे । रुचि आणि जोडे श्लाघ्यता हे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मना पाहिजे अंकुश । नित्य नवा दिस जागृतीचा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Devotion is as difficult as bread impaled upon a spike. Only the rare and valiant hero can claim it. Wherever I look, I see a mountain of obstacles, a wall built without foundation, raised in haste. When one perseveres, the dish cooks to its full essence, and both flavor and glory are gained. Says Tuka, the mind needs a goad. Each day must bring fresh vigilance.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Devotion is hard, like bread set on a spike. Only the rare, brave one can take hold of it. Wherever I look I see a mountain of obstacles, a wall raised in a hurry with no foundation. But when you keep at it, the dish cooks through to its full taste, and you gain both flavor and honor. Tuka says: the mind needs a goad. Every day must bring fresh wakefulness.
What it means
Tukaram is honest about how hard the path of devotion is. He compares it to snatching bread off a spike: it cannot be grabbed carelessly, and only the rare, courageous person manages it. The road looks like a mountain of obstacles, or a wall thrown up in haste with nothing under it, ready to fall. Yet he holds out the reward of persistence with a cooking image: stay at it and the dish finally cooks through, yielding both real flavor and real honor. The practical instruction at the end is that the restless mind must be kept under a goad, and the vigilance cannot be borrowed from yesterday; each day demands it new.
Devotion to Vitthal
Poems of praise, invocation, and intimate address to Lord Vitthal at Pandharpur.
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