Nature of God, deluded by self-effort
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बांधे सोडी हें तों धन्याचिये हातीं । हेंकडें गोविती आपणां बळें ॥1॥
भुललियासी नाहीं देहाचा आठव । धोतयानें भाव पालटिला ॥ध्रु.॥
घरांत रिघावें दाराचिये सोई । भिंतीसवें डोई घेऊनि फोडी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा गेलीं विसरोन । आतां वर्म कोण दावी यांसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Binding and loosing are in the master's hands, yet people entangle themselves by their own force. The deluded one has forgotten the body altogether; the washerman has changed the very nature of his cloth. One should enter the house through the door, but instead one smashes one's head against the wall. Says Tuka, they have forgotten God; now who will show them the secret?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Binding and loosing rest in the master's hands. Yet people tangle themselves up by their own force. The deluded one has forgotten his own body. The washerman has changed the very nature of his cloth. You should go into the house through the door. Instead you smash your head against the wall. Tuka says: they have forgotten God. Now who will show them the secret?
What it means
Tukaram says release is God's to give, the master who binds and loosens, yet people work feverishly to entangle themselves all the more. He stacks up images of getting it backward: a man so deluded he forgets he even has a body, a washerman who ruins the cloth he was meant to clean, and someone who batters his head against the wall when the door stood open beside him. The common error is trusting one's own force instead of the master's hand. Having forgotten God, who is the real door, such people have no one left to point them to the way in.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →