Gratitude to the saints, the watchful cow
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
काय या संतांचे मानूं उपकार । मज निरंतर जागविती ॥१॥
काय देवा यांसि व्हावें उतराई । ठेवितां हा पायीं जीव थोडा ॥ध्रु.॥
सहज बोलणें हित उपदेश । करूनि सायास शिकविती ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे वत्स धेनुचिया चित्तीं । तैसें मज येती सांभाळित ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
How can I repay the debt I owe to the saints? They keep me awake and watchful at all times. How can one ever become free of this obligation to God? Even if I lay my life at their feet, it seems too little. Their ordinary conversation is itself a teaching for my benefit; they take great pains to instruct me. Says Tuka, as a cow's chitta is always fixed on her calf, so do the saints tend to me with ceaseless care.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
How can I count the kindness of these saints? They keep me awake at all hours. How, my God, can I ever repay them? To lay my life at their feet is too small a thing. Their ordinary talk is itself good counsel for me; they take great pains to teach me. Tuka says: as a cow's heart stays fixed on her calf, so they come to watch over me.
What it means
Tukaram is naming a debt he says he can never clear: the saints keep him spiritually awake, and even laying down his life would not repay it. The work they do for him is quiet, their plain conversation is already instruction, and they labor over him on purpose. The cow-and-calf image lands the claim: their attention to him is not duty but the helpless, constant love of a mother for her young. The poem points the listener to value such company rightly, as the very means by which one is kept from sleep and steadily taught.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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