Surrender, the mother knows the need
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जैसें तैसें राहे देवाचें हें देणें । यत्न करितां तेणें काय नव्हे ॥1॥
दासां कृपासिंधु नुपेक्षी सर्वथा । अंतरींची व्यथा कळे त्यासी ॥ध्रु.॥
मागों नेणे परी माय जाणे वर्म । बाळा नेदी श्रम पावों कांहीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज अनुभव अंगें । वचन वाउगें मानेना हें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whatever God gives, let it remain as it is; no effort of your own can surpass it. The ocean of mercy never neglects his servants; he knows the suffering hidden within. The child does not know how to ask, but the mother knows the need and never allows the child to suffer. Says Tuka, I speak from my own experience; these are not hollow words.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whatever God gives, let it stay as it is; your own effort can make nothing better. The ocean of mercy never neglects his servants; he knows the pain hidden inside. The child does not know how to ask, but the mother knows the secret and never lets the child come to harm. Tuka says: this is my own experience in the body; these are no hollow words.
What it means
Tukaram is making the case for resting in God's giving rather than improving on it by force. Nothing your own effort produces can surpass what God provides, because he is an ocean of mercy who never abandons his servants and already knows the pain you carry inside. The image he trusts is the mother and infant: the baby cannot even name what it wants, yet the mother knows and sees that it never suffers want. He closes by staking his own credibility on it. This is not a saying he repeats; it is what he has lived in his own body, so the words are not empty.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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