Grindstone, the chore as sadhana
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सिद्ध करूनियां ठेविलें कांडण । मज सांगातीण शुद्ध बुद्धि गे ॥१॥
आठव हा धरीं मज जागें करीं । मागिले पाहारीं सेवटिचा गे ॥ध्रु.॥
सम तुकें घाव घालीं वो साजणी । मी तुजमळिणी जंव मिळे ॥२॥
एक कशी पाखडी दुसरी निवडी । निःशेष तिसडी ओज करी ॥३॥
सरलें कांडण पाकसद्धि करी । मेळवण क्षिरीसाकरेचें ॥४॥
उद्धव अक्रूर बंधु दोघेजण । बाप नारायण जेवणार ॥५॥
तुका म्हणे मज माहेरीं आवडी । म्हणोनि तांतडी मूळ केलें ॥६॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have prepared the grain for pounding, and pure wisdom is my companion at the stone. Hold this remembrance and wake me in the last watch of the night. Strike even, balanced blows, O my friend, until I merge with you completely. One sifts, another winnows, and the third separates the pure essence without remainder. When the pounding is done, prepare the sacred dish; let the seasoning be milk and sugar together. Uddhava and Akrura, the two brothers, will be the attendants, and the father, Narayana, is the one who will dine. Says Tuka, I long for my mother's home; that is why I have arranged this occasion in such haste.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I have made the grain ready for pounding, and pure understanding is my companion at the stone. Keep this in mind, and wake me in the last watch of the night. Strike even, balanced blows, my friend, until I have merged completely into you. One sifts, another winnows, and the third picks out the pure essence with nothing left over. When the pounding is finished, prepare the sacred dish, and let the seasoning be milk and sugar together. Uddhava and Akrura, the two brothers, will wait at table, and the father, Narayana, is the one who will eat. Tuka says: I long so for my mother's home that I have hurried to send for it.
What it means
Tukaram takes the women's grindstone-song, sung in pairs before dawn, and makes the whole chore a figure for spiritual practice. The grain is the self; pure understanding is the working partner; the even, balanced blows are steady discipline, continued until the grinder merges into the one she works with. The threefold sifting, winnowing, and separating is discernment, parting the pure essence from the chaff. The end is a dish cooked for God: Narayana himself is the diner, attended by his devotees. And the longing that drives the whole pre-dawn labor is the soul's homesickness for its true home, the mother's house, which here is God.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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