God who serves His own servant
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव बराडी देव बराडी । घाली देंठासाटीं उडी ॥1॥
देव भ्याड देव भ्याड । राखे बळीचें कवाड ॥ध्रु.॥
देव भाविक भाविक । होय दासाचें सेवक ॥2॥
देव होया देव होया । जैसा ह्मणे तैसा तया ॥3॥
देव लाहान लाहान । तुका ह्मणे अनुरेण॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
God is greedy; He leaps for even a scrap. God is timid; He guards the doorway of Bali. God is devoted; He becomes the servant of His own servant. God becomes whatever His devotee desires Him to be. Says Tuka, God is small, smaller than the smallest atom.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
God is a beggar, God is a beggar; He leaps for even a scrap. God is timid, God is timid; He guards the door of Bali. God is full of faith, full of faith; He becomes the servant of His servant. God becomes it, God becomes it; whatever the devotee says, that He turns into. God is small, small. Tuka says: smaller than the tiniest atom.
What it means
Each line names God by a humble title and means it as praise. He is a beggar who pounces gratefully on the smallest offering of love. He is timid, recalling how He stood as gatekeeper at the door of the demon-king Bali, the master made a servant. He is so devoted to His devotees that He becomes their servant, and He shapes Himself into whatever they ask Him to be. The closing line shrinks Him below the smallest atom. The whole poem celebrates a God who makes Himself low for the sake of love, refusing grandeur in order to belong to those who are His.
The Nature of God
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